Sapphire Flames
by rogue-scholar07
Summary: Reposted and remodeled. A young witch living on Earth with her grandmother-also a witch-enrolls as a freshman at Cloud Tower. But not all is as it seems, because the secret she's keeping could change not only Magix, but the entire Magical Universe.
1. The Visitor

**A/N:**** Some of you may remember this story from years and years ago when I first posted it, and were wondering why I took it down. To be perfectly honest, it needed a massive remodel to fix all the continuity errors and plot holes I left in it the first time. So, without further ado, let's get this show on the road!**

**Dedication****: To all of you who reviewed the first time, and to my Winx partner in crime, Chibi Horsewoman. **

**Disclaimer:**** Flattery will get you nowhere. Chocolate is another matter entirely.**

**Sapphire Flames**

**1. The Visitor**

'Come on! Just a little farther!' Sapphire Cole mentally screamed at her steed. The small town was nice, when the villagers didn't come after you with torches and pitchforks. 'How could I have been so careless?' She chided herself, her deep blue hair rippling behind her like ocean waves. She'd cast a spell at the local farmer's market to duplicate an apple, but it backfired and she wound up with twenty apples and a group of angry farmers chasing her out of town.

Once she reached the border between the road and the forest, she made a sharp right and took off through the woods. Logs, tree roots and low-hanging branches did little to hamper her escape as she guided her horse deeper and deeper into the trees. Eventually the sounds of shouting stopped, and she let the horse stop for a break.

"Looks like we lost them this time, Firestar." Sapphire panted. Running away like that was a total workout!

A pair of long white ears then popped out of the saddlebag where the groceries were. "You can come out now, Snowball. They're gone." The aqua-eyed witch stated as a white bunny poked her head out of the sack and eyed her owner suspiciously. "Looks like you made it, so I guess we'd better head back." Sapphire said as she turned the horse towards a path in the woods. "Grams is not going to like this!"

Her grandmother, Ruby Cole, was a witch, just as she and every other female in her family was. Grams raised her since birth, because her mother died and her father…wasn't around.

After she tied Firestar off and unhooked the bags of groceries, she walked inside the small cottage that served as her home for the last ten years of her life. A strange female voice startled her; there were almost never any visitors who ventured this deep into the woods. Curious, she poked her head into the parlor and saw her grandmother talking with a middle-aged woman, likely another witch from her odd clothing. The older lady's violet hair twisted upward into an odd spiral, and her gold eyes sparkled with a kind of wicked wisdom. Her clothes were neat and expensive-looking, and all in shades of purple.

"Wonder who she is?" Sapphire whispered to Snowball, who looked back at her with confused eyes.

"Sapphire! Come in!" Grams said pleasantly. "I would like to introduce you to someone."

"And what she wants." Sapphire muttered as she and Snowball walked into the room.

"Sapphire, This is Minerva Griffin. An old acquaintance of our family's." Grams motioned to the woman in the other chair.

"I run the Cloud Tower School for Witches." Miss Griffin said. "Your grandmother and I were discussing the possibility of your starting Cloud Tower this semester."

"You mean you're actually enrolling me in a **school!**" Sapphire blinked. She hadn't been in an actual school since she accidentally set a desk on fire in the third grade. "What classes will I have to take?"

"Potions, levitation, Realm History—the basics for the freshman year." Miss Griffin waved, "But I will have to put you in several advanced incantations classes because of your mastery of spells."

"About that." Sapphire winced, rubbing the back of her head. This was soo not going to go over well! "I kinda got chased out of town again."

"What was it this time?" Grams sighed.

"Duplication spell backfired big time." Sapphire replied as Ruby let out an exasperated groan.

"Sapphire Allegra Cole, how many times have I told you not to use magic in public?" The now gray-headed woman glared at her only grandchild.

"But it worked great yesterday when I practiced on some leaves! And really, how much different is an apple? It's still a plant part, and easy to duplicate..."

"Which is, no doubt, how people **noticed**!" Ruby hissed. "How bad is the damage this time?"

"Um, I don't think I can go back there again without risking being burned at the stake." The teen stated. "Not without a major makeover."

"Is that a go for Cloud Tower, then?" Griffin asked, finally speaking up.

"Yes." Sapphire nodded. "It's time to start over somewhere new, I think."

"Very well." Miss Griffin smiled. "Enrollment is tomorrow; don't be late or I cannot let you into the school!"

"I understand completely, Miss Griffin." Sapphire replied respectfully.

"Then I hope you will enjoy your first day tomorrow." Miss Griffin said. "Goodbye, Ruby." She stepped onto a rug and vanished into thin air.

Once she was on, the two Cole witches got into yet another disagreement.

"What exactly are you thinking, Grams?" The younger witch spoke. "I can't go to an inter-realm school without a home realm! You and I both know it! And what about this power? How am I going to explain that away?"

"You will keep your origins to yourself." The older woman hissed. "We will say that you are from Earth."

"But they'll ask even more questions then." The turquoise-eyed girl glared. "Why can't I claim my mother's home realm? Nobody will raise a fuss about that."

"Because we were forced to flee from that place long ago, Sapphire. No, you will attend as a Freshman from Earth with a power source of Dark Fire. Any questions asked by anyone should be left unanswered, understand?"

"What about my coven? Shouldn't they be let in on all of this? You always said, and I quote, 'there are no secrets in a witching coven'."

"Use your instincts on that one, child. Provided you are so fortunate to form a coven your first year." The red-headed woman snipped. "Now off with you! You must have your things packed tonight!"

"Yes, Grams." The teen muttered, stalking off to her bedroom.


	2. Hello, World

**Disclaimer:**** When life hands you lemons, make apple juice and sit back and relax while life tries to figure out how the hell you did it.**

**Sapphire Flames**

**2. Hello World**

Sapphire felt a pang of jealousy as she walked through the gates to Cloud Tower School of Witchcraft. At the gates, parents and children exchanged hugs, tears, and comforting words before the young witches finally walked through the gates. Oh, how she wished Grams could be that sensitive! Instead of anything remotely bordering on emotional, she was practically shoved through the portal to Magix with only a curt goodbye and a warning not to get knocked up. 'Yeah. Real helpful, Grams.' The indigo-haired girl thought, walking confidently up to a somewhat wrinkly-looking witch.

"Name and home realm." Professor Edeltrude snipped.

"Sapphire of Earth." She replied, trying to ignore the gasps of shock behind her. Oh, the gossip mill would soon be grinding, but she had no interest in it. They could talk all they wanted, so long as no-one found out the truth.

Edeltrude looked suspiciously at Sapphire, then down to the list in her hands, and back again. "Pass. Next!"

Saph wasted no time gathering her one suitcase and walking into the school's hallowed halls. What did cost her time was trying to find her dorm room. The winding corridors of the school seemed to move _just_ to confuse her. Now, with only ten minutes to freshmen orientation, she had yet to find her room.

"Where the bloody hell with biting bats is my room?" She groaned, glaring daggers up at the ceiling.

"Having trouble?" Sapphire whirled around to find the person who was apparently standing behind her, finding a girl in a purple sweater-dress, black leggings, and boots. She had short orange hair teased and spiked in all directions, cappuccino-colored skin, and deep brown eyes.

"You could say that." Saph sighed. "I've been wandering around for a frikkin' eternity!"

"Good to know I'm not the only one." The girl chuckled. "I'm Dusk of Solaria, by the way."

"Sapphire of Earth." Sapphire stated as the walls yet again changed in the corridor.

Dusk's eyes widened in surprise. "Earth? I thought that planet didn't have any magic."

"Well, our family's not originally from Earth." The aqua-eyed girl elaborated. "Grams says it's because she doesn't want to deal with our relatives…or something like that." It was only _half_ a lie...

"Ah. That's cool." Dusk shrugged as Saph took another look at the walls.

"Hey, are those names on the doors? And were they there before?"

"No, they were not, and yes they are." Dusk replied, reading the names on a few doors before stopping in front of one in particular. "Hey, this one's got our names on it!"

"Along with our suitemates: Thorn of Linphea and Luna of Solaria." Sapphire observed as Dusk made an excited squeak.

"Oh, she's here!" She exclaimed. "Luna's my cousin. You'll like her."

"Okay." Sapphire said slowly as Dusk opened the door to their suite. On the other side, two other girls stared at the newcomers. One had a slightly tanned skin, long black hair, and green eyes and wore a plain denim skirt, a black t-shirt, and sneakers. The other one was paler and shorter, with her light-blond hair pulled back into pigtails to keep it out of her blue eyes. Her wardrobe was much edgier, consisting of a black sheer ¾ length t-shirt, black ribbed halter top, green tutu skirt, black tights and high black boots.

Blondie recovered first, rushing up and wrapping Dusk in a bone-crushing hug. "You made it! You made it! Yay!"

"Luna! I can't breathe!" The red-head protested. Luna immediately released her relative, backing away sheepishly and fiddling with the hem of her skirt.

"Sorry!"

"Is she always like this?" The girl who must be Thorn groaned.

"Like what?" Dusk blinked.

"She's been yapping non-stop since she got here." The green-eyed witch stated.

"I can't help it!" The blonde whined. "There's a girl from Earth! I mean, how awesome is that? After like a decade of nothing, bam! There's a girl moving into the school! Into our room, no less!"

"Uh, yeah." Sapphire took a slow step backward, setting her bag to the side. "Not that I don't _love_ being talked about as if I don't exist, but I don't want to be late for orientation."

"Oh crap, she's right!" Dusk groaned. "We have to get going! Oh, gods, there's no telling how long it will take us to get down there."

"Even longer if you don't stop panicking." Thorn rolled her eyes, walking to the door. "Are you two coming or not!"

"Of course we are!" Luna chirped.

"Oh, I hope we're not late!" Dusk wailed as the group exited the dorm and headed toward the auditorium.

* * *

"Okay, that was as pointless as it was boring." Thorn commented as the four teens traipsed back to their dorm area.

"You're telling me!" Dusk yawned. "Only thing worth noting was the dance."

"Oooh, I can't wait!" Luna gushed. "Oh! I still need to go find a dress, and get my nails done…"

"Maybe later today, Luna." Sapphire said. "If we're going out, I need to wear something more suitable in public." Because the horrid denim jumper Grams forced her to wear was so not cutting it!

"I think I'll change too." Thorn shrugged. "Can't look too good if you're going into downtown Magix."

"You know, we need a coven name." Luna thought out loud while the other two girls went to their rooms to change.

"Like Jinx?" Sapphire asked from behind the door to hers and Dusk's room.

"Sounds too much like Winx." Thorn protested.

"Maybe if we used the first letters of our names…" Dusk mused.

"No vowels, darling." Saph commented. "And besides, it needs to be catchy!"

"Curse?" Luna frowned as soon as she said it.

"No." Her cousin sighed as Thorn ran out into the common area.

"Hex!" She shouted, the ruffled hem of her red skirt flouncing as she jumped with excitement. "We'll be the Hex Coven!"

"Hex." Dusk said, pondering how the name sounded. "I like it."

"I second that motion!" Luna nodded.

Inside, Sapphire was jumping for joy. She was in a coven! A real, honest-to-not-so-goodness coven! Ha! Eat that, Grams! But she showed a lot more decorum when talking to her dorm-mates. "Motion passed, then, I'd say." She replied, walking out into the sitting area. She now had on a light blue t-shirt with a picture of a cat and the words "No Boys Allowed" scrawled across it in pink letters, jeans, black and white checked sneakers, and a denim jacket. "Looks like we're the Hex Girls."

"All right!" Thorn grinned wickedly.

"Yay! Onto some retail therapy! Who's up for shopping for dance dresses?" Luna jumped up and down excitedly.

Sapphire's eyes wandered away from her new friends. "Um, well, I don't think I have enough money for a formal dress." She said. Grams had given her a small clothing budget for the year, but back when her mother and grandmother attended the school, there were no dances to attend unless you planned on crashing them. "I'll be happy to help give you all opinions, though."

"Don't worry about it!" Thorn waved. "There's a neat little consignment shop near Mad Cow downtown. They're sure to have something in your price range."

"Any reason why the place is named after a contagious bovine disease?" Sapphire made a face.

"Oh, I guess the name has a different meaning on Earth." Dusk blinked. "But according to my older sister Dawn, it's one of the best hamburger places in town."

"And Dawn doesn't lie about good food!" Luna beamed proudly. "Too bad she graduated last year. You girls would have liked her."

"Anyway, I'm sure Mystic's consignment will have something for all of us to wear." Thorn put in, steering the conversation back to its original topic. "Wanna go have a look around?"

"Of course!" Dusk put in. "I've been wondering what the city looks like."

"Ditto." Sapphire said. "Let's go see some sights!"


	3. The Brawl at Mystic's

**Author's note:**** In case any of you didn't catch the reference, Thorn, Dusk, and Luna were the names of the Hex Girls, a fictional band on the cartoon Scooby Doo. I realize that I may have flip-flopped Dusk and Luna's names from that cartoon…but I could honestly care less, since this way works better with the story. **

**Disclaimer:**** I own Sapphire, and the Destructa coven. Everyone else belongs to either Nickelodian (who just bought the rights to Winx from Rainbow) and Hanna-Barbera entertainment. **

**Sapphire Flames **

**3. The Brawl at Mystic's**

"So this is Magix." Sapphire mused as she, Dusk, Thorn, and Luna walked down the sidewalk. "Not bad, for a place decorated by fairies."

"Yeah," Thorn said, "the whole pink thing is a total drag. But don't worry. The place we're headed to is on the witching side of town"

"Which is good, because otherwise we might choke on all the glitter." Dusk made a face, causing the other three to laugh.

Meanwhile, at Mystic's Consignment Boutique, Mirta was walking in with Musa, Flora, and Bloom. Stella and Tecna were back at Alfea keeping an eye on the unconscious fairy that had been found earlier that afternoon on school grounds. Regardless of the condition of Princess Layla-Aisha of Andros, Mirta wanted a dress for the inter-school dance and since Lucy still refused to speak to her, she'd managed to talk Flora into tagging along for a second opinion. Flora, in turn, helped her convince Bloom and a very reluctant Musa to take a trip to the part of town where witches roamed.

"You know, this place actually has some really unique stuff." Bloom observed as she browsed the shirt racks. Flora and Mirta were looking at dresses, while Musa had her eye on a guitar in the front window of the shop.

"And the prices are nice too." Mirta smiled, several prospective dresses slung over her left arm. "Which is great for girls like me who don't have family money to shop with."

"Exactly." Bloom nodded, holding up a pale pink shirt with a gray rabbit wearing a top hat on the front. "I think I found something I like."

"What's this?" An angry voice sounded from the doorway. The three fairies and the former witch turned around to see three older witches in the doorway. The speaker had steel gray hair and eyes of a lighter shade and wore a tiny blue bandana tube top and a silvery knee-length skirt with matching shoes. "A bunch of fairies shopping on our turf?"

"I say we run them off, ladies." Another girl with lime green hair and pale blue eyes spoke up. She wore a camouflage minidress and chocolate leather knee-length boots.

"Agreed." The third witch, a woman with a bright purple Mohawk and dressed in an electric blue tank top, dark purple pants, and purple flip-flops nodded. "Let's kick these pixies out of our part of town!"

"Hey, I thought Magix was a free realm!" Musa folded her arms, glaring at the trio and sounding much more confident than she really felt. Last time she'd wandered into this side of town, she'd gotten her butt handed to her by the Trix and a half a dozen of their classmates. Needless to say, she wasn't looking for a repeat performance of that.

"Not if we have anything to say about it." Green-hair powered up.

"Hey! No fighting in the shop!" The clerk at the counter scolded.

"Stay out of it, hag!" The gray-haired girl fired a blast of indigo energy at the poor sales woman.

"Sonic shield" Musa cried out, forming a protective energy barrier around the clerk and the merchandise around her.

"Haley, what the heck?" Green hair hissed at her companion. "Do you want the Magix Police department on our case?"

"Just taking out the trash." Haley growled. "Thought you would understand that, Chloe."

"How is the shopkeeper trash?" Chloe argued. "She's making a profit no matter who shops here. It's the fairies we need to focus on."

"Let's just go outside and settle this there." The purple-haired witch said.

"Shut up, Sonya, I'll handle this my way!" Haley growled.

"Not in here you won't!" the shop keeper shouted. "Transportus!"

In a flash of energy, the four Alfea students and the three witches were outside on the street.

"Now this is more my speed." Chloe grinned wickedly. "Now, on to the beat down."

And THAT was the scene when the Hex Girls walked up. "What the hell is all this about?" Sapphire frowned as the three fairies powered up and the witches did the same.

Chloe now wore a dark green cropped vest corset with lime green laces, a dark green mini-skirt, and thigh-high dark green boots. Sonya sported a dark violet bodysuit with electric blue stripes down the underside of the arms and the sides of the torso and legs. The stripes tied into a pair of electric blue boots with purple music notes on them. And, lastly, Haley now wore a navy tight-fitting tank top with matching pants and a thick silver belt. Silver ankle boots adorned her feet, and silver and navy striped armbands wrapped around her wrists.

"Looks like the fairies tried to do some shopping in Mystic's and the Destructa girls walked in on it." Dusk mused. "Dawn told me all about them. Said they had the potential to be one of the most powerful covens in school, after the Trix."

"Lowering their standards though, aren't they?" Thorn asked, studying the fairies. "Those girls are either Freshmen or entering Sophomores. Look! The one girl can't even transform yet!"

"Not really." Dusk sighed. "They want to run the school _and_ this end of town."

"Not if I have a say in it." Sapphire frowned as the other three offered shocked expressions. "What? If they have the good fashion sense to come shop here, they obviously aren't as stuck up as the average fairy!"

"Amen!" Luna praised, attracting the attention of the Destructa girls.

"Looks like a bunch of CT freshmen have a problem with our methods, ladies." Haley said. "Show them their place!"

"I think not!" Sapphire called out. "Spirits of darkness hear my plea, strip from these fiends the power to see!"

Swirling dark energy wrapped around Sapphire's body before shooting out and covering the eyes of the three Senior witches. All three shrieked in terror as their sight was taken from them, sending them falling to the ground with disorientation.

"What was that?" Chloe shrieked. "I can't see anything!"

"Neither can I! It's all black!" Sonya moaned. "Haley, what have you done to us?"

"It's not me, it's that freshman!"

"The freshman has a name, and you'd do well to remember it." Sapphire spoke up, folding her arms across her chest. "Now, will you leave and find another store owner to torture? I'm kinda on a schedule here."

"Anything!" Sonya pleaded. "Just let me see again!"

"Very well." The blue-haired teen waved a hand out. "Restorum totalus!" this time the dark energy left the witches' eyes and flew back into Sapphire, causing the crowd to stare.

"How could she have done that?" Musa whispered to the Winx with her. "She's an incoming freshman…no freshman has that kind of power unless they got some serious home tutoring."

"It's actually a simple binding spell." Mirta replied. "Usually we only learn it before finals, but any witch should be able to do it. She just caught them off guard."

"Very fortunate for us, I'd say." Flora said as Bloom studied the blue-haired girl across from her.

'There's something about her.' The red-headed Dragon-Fire fairy thought as the younger girl removed the spell. 'I don't know why, but she just seems…familiar.'

Sapphire, on the other hand, didn't pay the fairies any mind. She was too busy worrying about the now angry Senior coven ready to attack her and her new friends.

"You'll pay for that!" Haley roared, an angry gray-blue aura surrounding her.

"Just give it up already!" Thorn spoke up, putting her hands on her hips. "Save what's left of your pride and get out of dodge!"

"She's right. There are plenty of other places to terrorize on this end of town." Dusk nodded. "Go there."

"Shut up!" Haley screeched, firing an comet-like attack at the girls. "Comet Crusher!"

"Scatter!" Thorn cried out. The four freshmen jumped out of the way, avoiding the main impact from the blast. However, it was no longer the fairies and Seniors who were all fired up. Two of the Hex girls were now in on the act.

Dark flames licked around Sapphire's body as her clothes melted away. When the flames receded a bluish-black backless, sleeveless dress clung to her body, falling straight down to her ankles with a slit up to her hips on either side. Thigh-high blue-black stiletto boots reached up her legs, with a matching pair of gloves working most of the way up her arms. Finally, an icy-blue metallic belt made of interlocking circles hung loosely on her hips, giving a contrast to her otherwise dark wardrobe.

A shroud of shadows wrapped Dusk in a dark cocoon, obscuring her from view for a time. When they finally faded away, the orange-haired witch donned a tight dark purple button-up blouse and a matching knee-length pencil skirt. Dark purple ankle boots adorned her feet, while fingerless lilac-colored gloves covered her palms.

"So they can transform." Chloe said. "Might make a good fight someday. But not now. I don't like these odds."

"Me neither." Sonya frowned. "Miss Griffin will have our hides if we get caught destroying public property!"

"No!" Haley hissed. "They need to learn their place!"

"And you need to learn patience." Chloe leered at the gray-haired girl. "Transportus!" In a flash of green light, the three witches were gone.

"Looks like they went back to school." Mirta blinked.

"Wanna bet we somehow get the blame for this?" Thorn groaned.

"Not once the shopkeeper files a lawsuit against the school." Luna shrugged. "Then she'll know whose fault it really is!"

"Uh, let's try not to get sued today, okay Looney?" Sapphire said as she powered down.

"My name is not Looney!" Luna protested as Mirta, Musa, Flora, and Bloom made their way across the street to get a closer look at their unlikely allies.

"Uh…thank you?" Flora said skeptically, not quite sure what the appropriate thing to say in this situation would be.

"For what?" Dusk asked, stumbling a little as her transformation faded away.

"For stepping in to help us back there." Mirta stated. "I know most witches wouldn't."

"Just because they're so scared of the Destructa coven that they would rather watch someone else get beaten up than be beaten up." Dusk scoffed.

"Trust us on this one, most of us are just like you." Thorn said. "Dang, I hope those three blowhards didn't get us banned!"

"They shouldn't have." Luna said. "I get the feeling this happens a lot on this end of town."

"Like you wouldn't believe." Mirta smiled, feeling much more comfortable with the four witches before her. "I'm Mirta, and these are my friends Flora, Bloom, and Musa."

"Hey." Sapphire replied rather distractedly, focusing more on Bloom than on Mirta. Dang, that name sounded familiar…where had she heard it before?

"Nice to meet you!" Luna beamed, excitedly shaking Mirta's hand. "I'm Luna! Over there's my roommate Thorn. And my cousin Dusk. And her roommate Sapphire!"

"Okay, I think we need to limit your sugar intake from now on." Dusk replied dryly, earning a slight giggle from Musa.

"Don't sweat it. We have a friend just like that. She's even blonde!" The Music Fairy smiled.

"Not that this isn't all in good fun, but we came here to shop for dance clothes. " Thorn said softly. "And I'd rather like to know if we can even walk into the store right now."

"Calm down, Thorn, I'm sure it'll be just fine." Mirta said.

True to Mirta's prediction, the group was allowed back into the store by a very happy shopkeeper. Musa did indeed walk away with the guitar she saw in the front window, and everyone else went home with new clothes either for the dance, or everyday wear.

"I wonder who that fairy was?" Sapphire wondered as the group parted company.

"Which one?" Thorn asked.

"That girl Bloom." Saph answered. "She kept staring at me funny. Well, that and her name sounds familiar."

"It should if your family's kept up with the latest inter-realm gossip." Dusk said. "That was _Princess_ Bloom of Domino, although when she started at Alfea last year she was just a mysterious fairy from Earth."

"Domino!" Sapphire stopped cold, eyes wide. "But…I thought that Princess Dafne and Princess Bloom both died during the fall of Domino."

"So did virtually everyone else." Luna said. "Turns out Dafne sacrificed her energy to send her baby sister to Earth, and got turned into a nymph. Bloom apparently lived out a magic-free existence until last year."

"That's…remarkable." Sapphire said slowly, trying to remember to breathe. It couldn't be possible, could it? She'd been right next to her for the last hour and a half and didn't know it?

"Hey, are you okay?" Thorn asked, worry filling her green eyes. "You look a little pale."

"Girls, I think we may want to order those hamburgers to-go." Sapphire said. "I have a story for you three, but I'm not telling it out here."

"Oooh! A secret!" Luna said in a hushed voice. "I love secrets!"

"This one has to stay between the four of us, though." Saph warned. "We might be in for the fight of our lives if this gets out."


	4. The Amethyst Secret

**Disclaimer:**** You can pick your clothes and your nose, but never your relatives. **

**Sapphire Flames**

**4. The Amethyst Secret**

"So, what was so important that you couldn't tell us back in Magix?" Dusk asked as Sapphire shut and locked the door to their suite. The Dark Flame Witch wasn't taking any chances on being overheard. She even muttered a quick anti-eavesdropping hex to ensure that this stayed within the walls of her dorm room.

"Yeah, you sounded pretty freaked about it." Luna said as she sat down on a couch in the common area. Dusk sat next to her cousin, while Thorn took one of the armchairs. After making sure the room was secure, Sapphire finally took a seat in another armchair and looked over her dormmates.

"What I am about to tell you must stay within the coven." She said. "No one else can know. Well, aside from Miss Griffin, because I'm pretty sure she knew before I enrolled."

"My lips are sealed." Luna said, earning curious glances from the other girls. "Hey, I may like to stay up on the latest gossip, but I know when to keep a secret!"

"She's not lying either." Dusk shook her head, a smile on her face. "Now, spill. What's the big secret?"

"Well, I guess I should start at the beginning." Sapphire stated, taking a deep breath. "It all started nearly seventeen years ago, right here in Cloud Tower. A third-year witch named Amethyst kept having strange visions of the fall of Domino. Though the Ancestresses had yet to attack the planet, Amethyst was certain it would happen—and that Domino would be left desolate and without an heir to the throne. With the destruction of the royal family during the final battle, the realm and the entire magical universe would fall to the witches. For you see, that was her power: the gift of visions."

"This girl wouldn't happen to be a descendant of Crystal of Splendora, would she?" Dusk asked curiously. "I know she was supposed to see visions and stuff."

"Actually, Crystal could cast illusions, but that's beside the point." Sapphire elaborated. "But yes, Amethyst was the great-granddaughter of Crystal. And she was faced with a dilemma. You see, despite the fact that Crystal was accepting of pretty much everyone, her children and grandchildren swore their allegiance to the Whisperian coven, due to their great power and wealth. Amethyst was raised to believe that the Ancestresses were the end-all be-all of what a witch could achieve, and that their ways were the right ones. But she knew better once she realized the source of her power. She knew the suffering and pain they caused were wrong, and she knew that if she didn't do something, they would claim Domino for their own and no one could redeem the throne because there was no rightful heir to King Oritel."

"So what did she do?" Luna asked, eyes wide with excitement. She was quite enjoying this tale!

"She lied to the both the Cloud Tower staff and her parents and secured a seat on a shuttle bound for Domino." The indigo-haired girl continued. "Once there, she disguised herself as a servant and snuck into the king's quarters while Queen Miriam was busy tending to the injured soldiers returning from a tangle with the Coven's army. After a short lived but very effective devotion potion and some lessons on how to do the horizontal mambo, she left. A short time later, she was forced to leave Cloud Tower for 'medical concerns', and the family fled Splendora for fear of the backlash of what she had done. She died less than a year later."

"I think I've heard part of this rumor, but not in so much detail." Thorn eyed her covenmate skeptically. "How do you know so much about her?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Dusk stated. "I mean, come on, with a name like Sapphire, she's got to be one of Crystal's descendants as well. So, how are you related to Amethyst? An aunt? Older cousin perhaps?"

"Not quite." Sapphire sighed. "Amethyst of Splendora, daughter of Jaeger and Ruby, was my mother."

Three pairs of eyes locked onto hers. "No way." Thorn said slowly. "I mean, it's just not possible…"

"That's what they said when everyone realized Bloom was the Dragon Flame bearer last spring." Dusk pointed out. "And it kinda does make sense. Bloom has fire, you have Dark Fire…it's all a fire thing."

"But wouldn't that make her a princess?" Luna put in. "I mean, if she's Oritel's daughter…wouldn't she automatically be given a place in line to the throne?"

"Only if Bloom agrees." Sapphire said. "Besides, what does it matter now anyway? Instead of simply taking over Domino, the Coven turned the place into a barren wasteland that nobody lives in. Who wants to be princess of the inter-realm equivalent of Antarctica?"

"Magic penguins?" Luna offered, earning confused glares from the other girls. "What? They would!"

"She still has a point, though." Thorn said. "What's the point in having a title that means nothing?"

"I just want to get through freshman year. Ruling a realm is the last thing I want to have to worry about!" The aqua-eyed Earth girl shook her head.

* * *

Meanwhile, over at Alfea, Bloom was doing some research of her own. Just like every fairy had a book at Cloud Tower, Bloom now knew that every witch had a book at Alfea. It was just a matter of finding the right one.

"Why are we spending a perfectly good first night back in the library?" Stella wailed. "All these books are giving me a headache!"

"I'm looking for something!" The red-head replied. "I just don't know where to start."

"Check under the search heading "Crystal of Splendora". That should turn up what you're looking for." Mirta offered, getting a lot of wary looks from the other girls.

"Why that name?" Flora asked. "And how do you know that's what she's looking for?"

"I agree." Tecna stated. "I understand that Crystal of Splendora was a powerful witch, but how is that relevant to Bloom?"

"Wow, that's a long article." Musa whistled, looking at one rather lengthy news clipping with the picture of a young woman with violet hair and blue-violet eyes. "And hey, that lady looks kinda like the girl we saw in town today. You know? The Witch with the blue hair?"

"Sapphire." Bloom said. "Her name was Sapphire. And I think this might be a relative of hers. Maybe even her mother, judging by the date on this news story. Does the name Amethyst mean anything to you girls?"

"Not that I'm aware of, but then again witch gossip isn't something I keep up with." Stella admitted as Mirta perked up.

"Seriously? You found something on Amethyst?" She asked. "Wow. I figured that Sapphire had to be a descendant of Crystal's, but to be related directly to Amethyst…just wow!"

"What's so special about her?" Flora asked.

"Well, according to the article, she was a grade-A student at Cloud Tower before being expelled." Musa said. "The official record of expulsion cited 'health concerns'."

"Which is an old designation for 'pregnant out of wedlock'." Tecna added.

"That's kind of odd." Bloom says. "It says that Amethyst apparently didn't get into any trouble until she lied about her whereabouts to school officials and her parents and disappeared for a week. And when she came back, she was kicked out two months later, and the family packed up and left Splendora. Wonder why?"

"Sounds like they were afraid of something." Flora said. "But what?"

"I'm cross-checking Amethyst of Splendora on the realm-wide-web." Tecna stated, typing away on her keyboard. "And the results are… oh my."

"Let me guess, she purchased an inter-realm shuttle fare to Domino and back?" Mirta asked.

"Why would she do that?" Stella asked.

"Especially during that time period." Musa said. "I remember that date from History class back in primary school. That was the year Domino fell to the Ancestresses and the Royal Family was thought to be slaughtered. Actually, the date on that ticket pre-dates the Fall by about three months."

"I guess the rumors were true after all." Mirta said.

"What rumors?" Bloom asked. "Please, Mirta, if you know anything…"

"I'll tell you what I do know about this." Mirta said. "The story of Amethyst of Splendora is an urban legend at CT. No one really knows what became of her after she left. She just disappeared. But, before her little trip to Domino, Amethyst was troubled by recurring visions that the entire Royal Family was slaughtered in the invasion."

"So that was her power?" Stella interrupted. "She could see what was going to happen in the future?"

"Yes." Mirta nodded. "No one was quite sure exactly what happened on Domino, but considering the circumstances of how she got expelled…well, the most common theory was that she somehow managed to seduce the king. Although there was never any evidence to back that claim up…"

"No!" Bloom shouted, standing up so swiftly that she knocked over the chair she had been sitting in. "It can't be true! I mean, I don't know much about my real father, but I'm sure he would never…"

"He probably never even remembered she was there, Bloom." Flora said. "According to this, Amethyst's top subjects were potionology and horticulture. All she'd have to do was slip him a temporary mind control spell, and then give him one of many plant-based teas that can cause partial amnesia. And as a third-year student, she would have known how to do it."

"But…That girl…" Bloom said softly, glancing now at a picture of her father that had popped up on Tecna's laptop. She glanced from it, to the photo of Amethyst, and back again. It was certainly possible.

"Bloom, don't jump to conclusions." Stella said. "There's no definitive proof…"

"Stella, we have the same eyes!" The red-head cried. "And she does kind of look like Oritel…"

"But why?" Tecna asked suddenly. "Why would Amethyst risk everything like that?"

"Because she didn't want the Royal line to be wiped out. At least, not entirely." Mirta answered softly. "Think about it. The Whisperian Coven originally wanted to take over Domino, not turn it into a winter wonderland."

"And if her visions came true and the entire First family were wiped out, there would be no hope in ever stopping them." Musa deduced.

"Which means that rather than trying to shame the Royal House and destroy the planet, she wanted to make sure someone could come along later to save it." Flora said. "Oh, it's like one of those great tragedies!"

"Especially since Amethyst is dead now." Stella put in, looking up from a book she'd pulled off large pile of various materials pertaining to Crystal of Splendora. "This is a continuous family tree tracing the Crystal family line. It lists birthdates and dates of demise for every member of the family. She died on the same day her daughter was born."

"That **is **tragic." Flora shook her head. "There's no telling what her grandparents taught her to believe!"

"But she didn't act evil when we met her earlier!" Mirta pointed out. "In fact, she and three other freshmen helped us run off a coven of Seniors this afternoon."

"Can we just drop the subject?" Bloom asked, tears starting to leak from her eyes. "I just…I can't talk about this anymore!" She said, running out of the library.

"Okay, new rule!" Stella exclaimed. "No discussions about dead relatives and their indiscretions."

"Works for me." Musa shrugged. "All this stuff is totally cramping my vibes."

* * *

"And you're sure of this?" Faragonda asked. She was currently engaged in a three-way video-chat with Griffin and Saladin. Griffin nodded solemnly.

"Positive." The violet-haired woman stated. "Ruby can deny it all she wants, but she can't hide the truth. That girl is Oritel's daughter."

"By the Dragon." Saladin sighed, looking down. "And to think no-one ever knew…"

"I believe Amethyst intended to unveil the girl's ancestry once the Coven had secured rule of Domino and the child had completed her magical training." Griffin explained. "Alas, she never got the chance, and the Coven destroyed Domino instead of simply taking it over."

"So the rumors of her death are true." Faragonda replied. "Yes, this does complicate matters. What is this girl like? How is she fitting in over at Cloud Tower?"

"Apparently quite well." Griffin smiled. "She's already befriended her dorm-mates. They intend to make a coven of four amongst themselves. And all three are good girls…at least by our standards. Not mean enough to want to take over the known realms, but with just enough of an edge to not take any punishment from upper-classmen."

"Good." Faragonda nodded. "I'd hate to think of someone with her ancestry running around with a group like the Trix."

"Now **that** would be a disaster." Saladin blinked. "Which begs the question: what do we do with her?"

"We let her be, for now at least." Faragonda stated. "I don't see any reason to intervene unless she either lands in trouble or starts causing it herself."

"I concur." Griffin stated. "It's better for everyone this way."

"I can see I would have been outvoted, if I didn't agree with you ladies." The old wizard coughed.

"Then the girl is not to be disturbed." Griffin responded. "All the better, I say. Gossip spreads like wildfire in this town! The fewer people who know about this, the better off we'll be!"


	5. A Day in the Life

**Disclaimer: ****Birds singing in the morning? It's nice for about five minutes, and then you wish they'd all shut up and let you sleep in peace**

**Sapphire Flame**

**5. A Day in the Life**

Beep. Beep! BEEEEEP!

SLAM!

A hand fell sharply on the snooze bar of the alarm clock on the nightstand. Aqua eyes blinked slowly at the time presented by the digital face of said clock: 6:30. A groan escaped the girl's lips as she pulled herself up into a sitting position. She was so not a morning person! But, she didn't want to be late for her first official day of classes, so she rubbed her eyes and started trying to get her brain to function properly.

Thwump!

"Ooof!" Sapphire moaned, looking at the creature responsible for suddenly shunting her into alertness. It was a small white rabbit with pink eyes and a blue snowflake-emblaizened ribbon tied around its neck. "Snowball! What was that for?" The blue-haired witch muttered, lifting the bunny up off of her lap. "I can wake myself up, you know!"

Snowball glanced up at her, as if trying to say 'That's what you say every morning, but you don't do it.'. The teen sighed, throwing the covers back and rolling out of bed. The little rabbit jumped off behind her and darted in between her feet.

"Why don't you go get Dusk up?" Saph yawned, opening her closet. "I need to change, and you're not helping."

The rabbit perked up, darting away from her and over to the sleeping girl's bed. She jumped up on the bed and began to hop excitedly all over the redhead's back.

"Gyah!" The Shadow witch exclaimed, suddenly quite awake and alert. "Sapphire, get your darn rabbit off me!"

"Oh good, you're awake." The blue-haired teen smiled as Snowball settled down. "I'd hate for you to sleep in on our first day."

"You're evil." Dusk glared.

"Yeah, but this way we both get breakfast and I'm not to blame if you pass out in class for lack of food." Saph shrugged, pulling a shirt and skirt out of her closet and heading to their shared bathroom.

"Whatever." The red-head rolled her eyes in annoyance.

* * *

By the time Sapphire and Dusk made it through the breakfast line in the "Dining hall" (aka, the cafeteria), Thorn had already found an empty table and was waving wildly at the pair to come join her. She wasn't hard to spot, as very few witches dared to wear a bright red halter top, no matter how dark her jeans and shoes were.

"I sense you may be teased for this one, Thorn." Dusk commented, poking at her scrambled eggs with her plastic fork. She wasn't sure she wanted to eat something that bounced back when she touched it!

"Let them come." The dark-haired girl shrugged, fearlessly taking a bite of the fruit cup on her tray. "I like this color. I wear it. The rest of the school can get over themselves."

"I think this school is entirely too focused on appearances." Sapphire stated, trying to determine if the bacon on her plate was simply colored cardboard or actual food. In the end, she decided it wasn't worth it and settled on simply eating her over-cooked bagel with cream cheese. "If you're not dark enough, you're a pixie. If your skirt falls any lower than your knees, you're a prude. You'd think this school would have advanced a little in the last century!"

"Yeah, but what's a girl to do about it?" Dusk shrugged. "Tradition is taken very seriously at this school. You saw and heard for yourself the uproar in the auditorium when Griffin told us we would be invited to attend the inter-school dance rather than crash it."

"I don't think I've seen that many disappointed seniors before." Thorn shook her head. "Guess the annual 'Prank the Dance' event was a big deal around here."

"No joke! Winner got an A in select classes, not to mention the simple prestige that came with the title." Dusk explained. "It's what all the seniors look forward to. And now it's gone."

"Wanna bet they still try to ruin the dance for the rest of us?" Thorn asked in between bites of pineapple.

"I would, but I can't afford to lose five dollars." Saph sighed. "Anything we can do to protect ourselves?"

"Not unless we get a heads up on what they're doing." The red-headed girl shrugged as a rather loud "Oof!" sounded through the cafeteria.

"Watch where you're going!" Haley's voice sounded off in its typical angry tone.

"I didn't mean to!" Luna's voice protested. The three freshmen looked at each other for a second before all standing up and running to their covenmate. Luna had apparently run into Haley on accident, and was now surrounded by the three Destructa witches.

"Doesn't matter, freshie." Sonya sneered. "Nobody runs into us and lives to regret it!"

"Funny, because as I recall, we kicked your butts pretty squarely yesterday." Sapphire spoke up, gaining the attention of the other four witches. She, Thorn, and Dusk formed a picket line separating the soon-to-be fight from the rest of the dining hall.

Haley's eyes widened. "You!"

"Yeah, that's me." The blue-haired teen stated. "Now why don't you let our friend go, and we can all move on with our lives without wasting precious energy arguing?"

"Don't get cocky!" the gray-haired girl growled. "You got lucky the first time. Next time we'll beat you good!"

"Whatever." Thorn rolled her green eyes. "Just let our friend go, and we won't all get suspended for brawling in the cafeteria."

"Then we'll settle this elsewhere." Chloe said with a smirk, eying the Hex girls. "Haley and little miss Sapphire will have a one-on-one fight after class lets out."

"Are you crazy?" Sonya gave the green-haired girl a wary look. It wasn't like Chloe to set fights up. She had to have an ulterior motive for this.

"No." She shook her head. "Let's see if lightning strikes twice for the little fish, or if senior superiority proves true."

"You can't possibly think of agreeing to this!" Dusk hissed. "It's too dangerous."

"Is the little freshman too scared to fight?" Haley taunted. Sapphire narrowed her eyes.

"You're on!" She said.

"Excellent." Chloe smirked wickedly. "Come on, ladies. We have work to do!"

"That Chloe is up to something." Thorn stated as the three seniors walked away. "And it can't be good."

"Why did you even agree to that?" Luna asked, looking at Sapphire with wide eyes. "You could be really hurt! They're not above nearly killing you to prove their point!"

"We can't let them walk all over us!" Saph stated. "That's all that makes them powerful. If we stand up to them, they fall from grace."

"I still don't like it." Dusk frowned as final bell rang.

"You don't have to." The aqua-eyed witch said. "Now, on to class. During lunch I'll need one of you two to explain exactly what Haley's power is."

"Will do." Luna nodded an affirmative. "Try not to get into any more fights, okay?"

Meanwhile, the Destructa witches were talking among themselves. "Chloe, what are you on?" Sonya asked. "Why challenge a fight?"

"So we can observe her, my dear." Chloe replied evenly.

"Who cares about observation? I just want a rematch!" Haley growled.

"Take a chill pill, Hal." Sonya glared at her. "Now, why do we want to observe her?"

"Because she's powerful." Chloe answered. "Very powerful. I can feel her energy from here."

"And that plays into our plans how exactly?" Haley asked impatiently.

"If we can get her to reveal the source of her power, we can trace her origins." Chloe said. "I'm willing to bet that her family isn't _really_ from Earth. I bet they were exiled."

"She's probably a Crystal witch." Sonya said off-handedly. "I mean, aside from the royal family of Isis, who's going to name their kid after a precious stone?"

That got the gray-haired girl's attention. "An exiled Crystal witch? You don't think…"

"No way to know until this afternoon, is there?" Chloe smirked. "Aren't you glad I do the thinking around here."

"Very glad indeed." Haley smiled. "I'm sure if this pans out your relatives will reward us greatly."

"Oh, they will. Count on it." The Chaos witch smiled.

**Who are Chloe's mysterious relatives? How is Sapphire going to prepare for the big fight? Find out in the next installment of Sapphire Flames!**


	6. Waiting for the End

**A/N:**** Part two of the "Day in the Life" series, now with more Lucy!**

**Sapphire Flames**

**6. Waiting for the End**

Levitation 201 was Sapphire's new favorite class. Despite being a sophmore-level course, she found it to be surprisingly fun and a lot less challenging than she expected. Of course, part of the cool-factor came from the fact that the teacher was a 30-something year-old wizard named Professor Farley. Unlike the other teachers at CT, Farley actively encouraged students to goof off in class, so long as no-one tried to knock anyone else out of the air.

A near-collision with a distracted auburn-headed girl landed Sapphire next to a lanky witch with long flowing green hair, dark brown eyes, and skin that might hold a tan if she ever got out into the sun long enough. "Watch where you're flying!" Sapphire called out to the retreating sophmore as the tall witch next to her chuckled.

"She won't even hear you." The girl said in a deep voice. "That's Shaylin of Shiloh… and she probably has her damn earbuds in again. She did that every class last year."

"Good to know." The blue-haired witch nodded. "I'm Sapphire."

"Lucy of Hestia." Lucy nodded. "You're that other Earth-girl right?"

"In the sense that I was raised there, yes." Sapphire said, then paused as soon as the upper-classman's words sunk in. "Wait. OTHER Earth girl?"

"Yeah." Lucy sighed as the two started to fly circles around a group playing keep-away with a frizbee. "She's a Freshman, like you, but I think she's from a different part of the planet. Didn't sign up for any advanced classes, either."

"Good chance she didn't know she had magic, then." Sapphire said. "Grams made absolutely certain I knew my basics, and a few other odds and ends."

"My parents were the same way." The upper-classman nodded in agreement. "I think it's a good thing to learn some of your basics before you enroll, actually. Saves you the embarrassment of finding out you're not really…" The forest-haired teen abruptly stopped talking, eyes now filled with pain and sadness.

"Not really what?" Sapphire prodded. "Able to fly?" Actually, there were quite a few power sets that made it REALLY difficult to learn to levitate. Someone with an affinity for rocks and the earth might start feeling very queasy when they first start levitating, due to the separation from their element. And if you happened to have a source connected to weapons or combat…well, your chances of getting off the ground before graduation were incredibly slim.

Lucy swallowed hard and whispered in a soft voice "Not really a witch."

That was a possibility that had honestly never occurred to Sapphire. "How do you get into this school if you're not a witch? I thought there was a magical aptitude and channeling test for all incoming non-transformed freshmen?" Which she had mercifully been able to circumvent…

"She never transformed." Lucy shook her head. "I mean, her power's are kind of empathetic, so it made it hard for her to channel them, but she just never could get—well, dark enough to gain a witch's transformation. Although being turned into a pumpkin for the last couple months of school might have messed her up a bit too…"

"You DO realize it's not all in whether you gain wings or don't right? Or even your power source?" The aqua-eyed teen asked. "I've heard that, while unusual, some people can go from being a witch to being a fairy if they learn to channel their energies just right." Come to think of it, she remembered reading something about the headmistress at that fairy school once being a witch… "Actually, most of the older native witches on Earth never do transform because they channeled their magic differently than their other realm counterparts." They probably learned to do it that way to avoid being hunted down by whatever the hell wiped out all the fairies.

"It's just not right!" Lucy exclaimed, her hair now billowing wildly around her. "I mean, she switched schools! All for her new pixie friends!"

"Lucy…" The younger girl said softly. "this girl…did she ever really fit in here to begin with?"

"Well, no…"

"Then maybe it's for the best." Sapphire shrugged. "I mean, if she once went here, she can't be as stuck up as the rest of them. And they do learn different stuff at pixie school. If you ask nicely, I bet she'll teach you what she knows. You two were obviously close…"

"No!" Lucy shook her head, pain in her voice. "She's a traitor! Simple as that!"

"All right, Girls, wrap it up and land!" Professor Farley called out. Without another word, Lucy tore away and swooped down to the ground. A long sigh escaped Sapphire's vocal cords. Lucy was clearly hurting over "losing" her friend…maybe she could ask the other girls if they would mind including the older girls in their activities? She made a mental note to bring it up over lunch as she touched back down on the ground.

* * *

Lunch, mercifully, was less of an ordeal than breakfast had been. Despite getting curious glances from a few other witches, the Hex girls were allowed to eat in silence.

"So…what exactly does Haley **do**?" Sapphire asked her suitemates. Thorn shrugged.

"Well, from the look of the attacks she was throwing our way at Mystic's, I think she's some kind of Celestial Witch."

"You would be right." Dusk nodded. "She's from Cosmosia, and supposedly her specialties are comets and small asteroids."

"So, count on a lot of projectile attacks with few shields." Sapphire sighed. "This oughta be interesting."

"How are your deflection spells?" Luna asked hopefully.

"Not good. Fire's not a very effective shield."

"Can you dodge out of the way?" Thorn asked worriedly. "I mean, she's a senior, and she's gonna be looking for blood now."

"Depends on how the match is set up." Sapphire sighed. "If it's a ringed or caged match, the answer is no."

"And dear Chloe knows it." Dusk frowned. "You better hope you can burn up those attacks before they get to you. That, or use some more advanced binding spells…"

"I do know one," the blue-haired girl admitted, "but I've never used it before. It's been passed down through the family, or so I'm told. It's incredibly advanced, though. I might not be able to cast it properly."

"Better try to, or else you might wind up squished." Luna stated. "Rumor among the other students in Herbology was that she almost killed a girl with one of her attacks last year."

"I'll play it by ear." The Earth native stated. "I know she has a wicked temper, and that she got sloppy while angry back at Mystic's. It's not much of an advantage, but it's all I have."

"Let's just hope it's enough." Dusk sighed. "Now, what was it you said earlier about a moody sophmore in need of our help?"

"Oh. Yeah, I met this girl in Levitation." Saph nodded. "Best friend transferred to Alfea this semester, and she's real upset about it, but right now she's blaming the friend instead of trying to work things out."

"Typical for someone from a traditional witching family." Dusk admitted. "A lot of people consider someone who changes schools like that a Traitor."

"I know. Grams tried to shove that down my throat from the time I was old enough to listen." Saph winced. "Fortunately one of my early magical tutors helped counteract that bologna."

"Guess I'm fortunate to live on Linphea." Thorn looked down.

"Oh. I forgot, witches aren't very common on your planet are they?" the Shadow witch looked at her friend.

"No, they're not. But I guess it's a good thing…sort of. Everyone cares more about plant life there than how your magic is channeled. " The dark-haired girl stated.

"But, anyway, what's this girl like?" Luna asked, leaning in closer to Sapphire.

"A little stand-offish, but not totally unfriendly." The aqua-eyed girl thought. "Tall, thin, long dark hair that's a little on the wild side. She was close to this girl that left, though. Apparently her friend never fit in while she was in attendance, but Lucy's having trouble seeing that this school switch could be a good thing for both of them."

"Again, traditional witch background." Dusk shrugged. "But you're right. It could be a great benefit to have a friend who's a fairy, since they have powers that work a little differently than ours."

"Happens all the time on my planet." Thorn shrugged. "Again, very few witches, so most of the witches learn magic tips from their fairy relatives, and vice versa. Everyone in a family with a witch involved tends to be more magically well-rounded and can use both witch- and fairy-type attacks."

"Maybe we should make friends with some fairies?" Luna suggested. "Like those girls we met at Mystic's? They seemed pretty cool. And one of them's her sister, so they can't all be that bad." She pointed at Sapphire, who immediately made shushing noises.

"Don't talk about that!" she hissed. "Nobody knows who I am, and I'd rather like it to STAY that way!"

"Well, sorry, but I think it would be to our benefit to make friends with those girls." The Solarian blond folded her arms.

"I agree." Dusk nodded. "It would make us stronger."

"I'm not arguing that, but no more family talk, okay? It's supposed to be a secret!" Sapphire sighed. "Can you imagine the trouble we'd be in if Destructa found out about this?"

"Then we'll just have to watch our mouths and hope they never do." Thorn stated calmly. "And if they do…well, we need to make sure that that other girl knows too, so they can't use it to trap her or turn her against us. She'd be a powerful ally to have in our corner."

"Fine, I'll talk to her." Sapphire sighed as the lunch bell rang. "But not until after the brawl."

* * *

That afternoon, a good chunk of the student body gathered to watch what promised to be an interesting match between a notoriously bloodthirsty senior and a famously mysterious freshman from Earth.

On the one hand, Haley had a reputation in the school, having almost flattened another student to death during a class exercise last semester (for which she received no suspension for, due to the fact that the Trix took over the school one week later). She was, without a doubt, one of the most ruthless women the school had turned out in recent years…but she had a nasty temper, and when she got mad, she got sloppy.

Enter the challenger, Sapphire Cole from the backwater realm of Earth. Aside from the fact that she and Dusk of Solaria had reportedly taken the Destructa coven (of which Haley was a member) by surprise and scared them away from a group of fairies, not much was known about her. Not her power source, family, prior training…nothing. One rather prevalent rumor stated that she was a member of the Crystal family of witches, but none of that could be proven.

So, when the two women walked up to the battle circle, a fairly large crowd gathered to see just how things would end.

"The rules are simple." Chloe stated, looking from one witch to another. "Each of you must remain in the circle at all times. The last one to remain in the circle or stay conscious will be the winner. There will also be no use of deadly force." She glared at her coven-mate as she made this remark. Haley's carelessness and thirst for blood came dangerously close to getting the entire coven expelled last spring. Only the fiasco with the Trix witches managed to keep them off the disciplinary radar and in school. They didn't need a repeat performance.

"Sounds good to me." Sapphire nodded, letting the dark magic flames dance up her body, leaving her regular navy and ice blue transformation in their wake.

"Bring it on, brat." Haley snarled, flecks of ice and fire moving over her frame as she powered up.

"Very well, then." Chloe replied, stepping back out of the spell circle. "Begin!"

Haley wasted no time in launching a comet-like attack in Sapphire's direction, narrowly missing the younger witch. "Whoa!"

"Nobody makes me look like a fool and gets away with it." The Cosmosian girl snarled. "Asteroid Belt!"

"Dark Deflection!" Sapphire squeaked out, a wall of dark flames rising up to slow down the onslaught of projectile energy balls. After passing through the live "fire wall", the attack was reduced to a few large rocks which promptly heeded gravity's calling.

"Lucky break." The senior shouted. "But not lucky enough. Comet Crusher!" A large ball of ice with a burning, gaseous tail shot off, making to hit the Freshman head on, despite the wall of flames protecting her.

"Black Dragon's Rage!" The blue-haired witch wasn't sure where the words came from, despite the fact that she was the one speaking them. They just…fit somehow. Streams of jet-black flames erupted from her fingertips, travelling in a spiral toward the large comet. On contact, the large flaming ice ball was shattered into many smaller pieces that each went flying in their own direction, narrowly missing several unfortunate bystanders.

Chloe smiled gleefully as the attack fired off. So her hunch _was_ right. Her cousins would reward her greatly for this information!

A feral screech left Haley's lips. Comet Crusher was one of her strongest finishing moves. To have it outdone by some…some… freshman was an outright embarrassment! "You'll pay for that with your own blood!" She cried out, preparing to launch every attack she could muster at the upstart. Code of conduct be damned, the little brat was** not** leaving this ring in one piece!

"Miss Kepler, that is quite enough!" The loud, authoritative voice of Headmistress Griffin boomed, causing both girls to stop what they were doing. A hush fell over the gathered crowd as they waited for her to speak. "There will be no bloodshed today! You _must_ learn to check that temper of yours!"

"But she…!"

"What she did is completely irrelevant." The green-skinned woman frowned. "You are a Senior, and should know better by now! I hereby end this match and call it as a draw!"

A chorus of "_Aww!_" sounded through the crowd. "What are you all standing around for?" The elder witch raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow. "Don't you all have assignments to complete?" As if by magic (and no one was willing to rule it out), the crowd dissipated, all save the two respective covens. "Now, I believe we have something to discuss here."

"Yes. It seems Haley lost her temper. _Again_." Chloe glared at her coven-mate. "I thought I told you **not** to use deadly force?"

"You didn't need to anyway." Sonya frowned, folding her arms across her chest. "All you had to do was push her out of the circle."

"Traitors! Both of you!" Haley hissed.

"Oh, save the melodrama for the theatre elective!" Griffin stated. "You have just earned a week of detention, Miss Kepler."

"I didn't **do** anything!" The steel-haired witch protested.

"But as the saying goes, it's the thought that counts." Griffin shot the girl a silencing glare. "Any more protests, and it will be two weeks. Understood?"

"…yes, Miss Griffin." The witch muttered, turning to glare at Sapphire. "But this isn't over!"

"Oh, get over it!" Thorn waved as Dusk allowed their indigo-haired companion to lean on her for support. That final barrier/attack spell took a lot out of her.

"Come on, girls." Chloe stated, grabbing Haley by the arm. "I believe we have more important matters to attend to." And with that, Chloe and Sonya managed to drag a protesting Haley back into the tower.

"You girls must be more careful." Griffin stated once she was certain the three seniors were out of earshot. "Rumors are already spreading like wildfire."

"Let them burn, then." Sapphire said defiantly. "They can talk their little heads off for all I care. We know the truth. They don't."

"Yeah, but it was a close call." Dusk admitted. "I mean, come on, 'Black Dragon's Rage'?"

"I don't know where that came from!" Sapphire protested. "It just…it fit. I swear, I've never used that spell before!"

"Then I must ask that you refrain from using it again." The Headmistress replied crisply. "The last thing this school needs is another power-hungry megalomaniac trying to target one of our own students. You four are dismissed...but I better not catch you engaging in any more spell-offs." She warned. Luna nodded emphatically and saluted.

"Yes, Headmistress, Ma'am!"

Dusk rolled her eyes. "We have sooo gotta cut back on your daily sugar intake." She said as the four girls made their way back toward the tower.

* * *

Later that night, in the sanctity of her private bedroom, Chloe made a phone call to one of her relatives.

"Hey, it's me." She said, glancing around. "Yeah, listen, you guys aren't going to believe this! No, this is better than party gossip. No…how the hells should I know what the pixies are up to?" She huffed, sticking her nose in the air. "This is more important anyway." She paused a moment, listening to her elder cousin's rant. Sometimes she could be a bit…overbearing. And headstrong. And selectively deaf… "Well, it's _almost_ as good as the Dragon Fire. Remember those rumors we heard growing up about that Crystal witch Amethyst? Yes, she's the one who got kicked out." Another pause. "Apparently the ones about her and the king were, in fact, true. How do I know?" A wicked smirk formed on her lips. "Her fifteen year old daughter just enrolled here. Power over dark fire. Launches a badass attack called 'Black Dragon's Rage'."

The woman on the other end of the line went into a full-fledged rant of such great volume that Chloe held the phone three inches away from her ear and _still_ heard her relative perfectly clearly. The Chaos Witch rolled her pale blue eyes, patiently waiting for the other woman to get the shock and excitement out of her system. "I don't know if she knows or not, but it looks like Griffin does. Yes, I think she's met the little Dragon pixie, but I doubt they knew who the other was at the time." She let out an irritated sigh. "Of _course_ we're keeping an eye on her! We're not _ogres_, dear cousin. We **can** see!" That earned another minor outburst from the other end of the line. "Look, I'll call you when we have more information to report. Hope to have that jail-break ready by the end of the week. Take care. Bye." She hit the 'off' button on the phone and ended the call.

Yes, today had been a _very_ productive day.


	7. A Night to Remember

**I own Sapphire, Topaz, Mari, Rochelle, Chance, Jinx and the Destructa coven. Everything else belongs to Rainbow and Nickelodeon, or Hanna Barbera.**

**Sapphire Flames**

**7. A Night to Remember**

The night of the dance was… unique. The headmasters of the respective schools decided that Red Fountain was the best location for the dance, given that it was the most neutral location. Armed with this information, every girl seeking her own personal hero descended on the school gate in the hopes of gaining a date for the following weekend.

"Oh, wow." Dusk breathed, looking at the decorations in the courtyard where the dance was being conducted. Dozens of paper lanterns lit up the area, each lantern colored to represent one of the schools. Along the east wall, a row of long tables was set up for finger-foods and punch with a few round tables setting the food apart from the dance floor. "This is beautiful."

"I don't know that I'd call it that, but it's more tasteful than I expected." Lucy admitted. The Hex coven, along with Lucy and her roommate Mari of Andros, all arrived together. The least dressed up of the group, the green-haired witch donned a simple white blouse, black pinstripe vest, and black slacks (no amount of begging could convince her to wear a skirt).

"I've never seen anything like this." Sapphire stated, looking around with wide eyes. The downside of being home-taught, she supposed.

"It's actually very typical for this kind of thing." Mari, a pretty sophmore with wavy turquoise hair, lightly tanned skin, and golden eyes, shrugged. She and Thorn hit it off well, mostly due to the fact that the Tides Witch tended to dress in bright colors that made the other girls cringe. "My dad's one of the nobles in the Androsian court, so I get dragged to a lot of these things." She smoothed the skirt of her coral-colored halter dress out of nervous habit.

"Not a fan of politics, Posey?" Thorn winked, teasing her fellow witch. Mari pulled a face.

"Don't call me that. I hate my given name! Why do you think I don't use it?"

"Sorry, but it's just so poetic." Thorn smiled. "Mariposa del Rio: rolls right of the tongue."

"I still don't like it!" The older girl hissed. "It sounds like a fairy name!"

"Doesn't make it any less pretty." Sapphire pointed out. On Earth, there were no "fairy" or "witch" names anymore. The fairies vanished from the planet decades ago, and the witches were forced into hiding to avoid being hunted out like their light magic counterparts. To keep from being noticed, they named their children whatever was common or trendy at the time. The only reason _she _got stuck with such a bizarre name was because it was Cole family practice to name their offspring after precious stones and minerals.

"Wow! Look at all the cute guys!" Luna blurted out, jumping up and down excitedly. Dusk rolled her eyes at her relative's antics.

"You guys pick through them." Sapphire sighed. "I think I'll hit the snack bar first."

"Suit yourself." Luna shrugged, not at all curious about why her friend wasn't willing to troll for boys with her. Thorn shot her a skeptical glance, but didn't say anything. The Dark Fire witch ignored her completely and walked off.

It wasn't that she didn't want to talk to the boys, or possibly find a date. Oh, how badly she wanted it! But the family had spies everywhere. If they caught her so much as pretending to flirt with a guy, they would drag her by her ears to Splendora and force her into _that_. She had absolutely no interest in speeding up the timetable for that mess. Never mind that _he _slept around with whoever he wanted to. She was the girl; she had to behave like a lady at all times. Damn archaic double standards…

She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she collided with another person. Food flew off their plates and onto the ground. "Oh, _Dragon_!" She groaned, blushing just a little (which looked like a lot on her pale cheeks) as she squatted down to help clean the mess. "I'm so sorry! I didn't even see you there…" Whoever she bumped into was male, and had neatly trimmed honey-blond hair and eyes of a similar color. She also figured he might be wealthy, judging b the expensive-looking sweater and dress shoes he wore. His khaki slacks were also neatly creased and ironed.

"No, I should have been watching where I was walking." He apologized, smiling nervously. "I'm Topaz of Endor."

Endor, huh? Didn't hear much about that realm outside of economics and trade talks. "Sapphire of Earth." She responded as he stood and offered to take the ruined food to the trashcan. "Hope you don't mind me asking, but are you a Junior? You look too old to be a freshman or sophmore."

"No, I don't mind, and actually I'm a senior." He replied, turning back to her after he dumped the food. "I'm impressed you noticed. Most girls usually don't pick up on that. Now, what about you? I'm guessing second-year, but I usually suck at guessing games so…"

She chuckled despite herself. "Freshman, but taking several second-year classes." She explained. So far she liked him. He was kind, easy to talk to, well-dressed—not at all like Rubeus.

"That's cool." He nodded. "Learning all about potions and hexes?"

"Personally, I prefer flight and magical history, but that's a part of the curriculum too." She wasn't bothered by him assuming (correctly) that she was a Cloud Tower student. It was a safe assumption. She had yet to see a fairy in anything dark colored tonight. Well, except Mirta, but she considered the freckled girl to still be half-witch anyway. She was too amazingly dressed to be a full fairy. "Do you enjoy fighting and dragon-training?"

"Dragon flying, yes, but not much else about the two." He shrugged. "But it's a necessary evil, I guess. I'm a law and history buff, but learning to defend myself is important too."

"What do you think you're doing?" A female voice demanded. Sapphire turned her head to see a brown-eyed brunette in a slutty Kelly-green dress. Dragon, did she _paint_ the damn thing on? Must be a fairy, though, she decided. No witch (aside from possibly Thorn) would be caught dead in that color.

"Moving on with my life, thank you very much." Topaz answered without missing a beat. "We broke up last year, Rochelle. Remember?"

"Did you think I'd be that easy to get rid of?" The fairy raised a perfectly plucked (or waxed… or spelled…) eyebrow. Now that Saph could see her better, she decided the girl must be about the same age as Topaz. She looked too mature to be in her half-sister's class. "Father is already making the arrangements. I have no doubt your parents will sign the contract."

Topaz blanched. Sapphire quirked her own eyebrow. What the hell was going on?

"What contract?" Topaz asked cautiously.

"Why, our marriage contract, of course." Rochelle smiled sweetly. "You know how desperately your father wants to strengthen trade relations with Geos. Provided you don't find a suitable fiancé by graduation, you and I will finally get the wedding I've always dreamed we'd have!"

Sapphire couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy for Topaz. She was trapped in an eerily similar predicament. Grams wouldn't tolerate her choosing to marry anyone of her own choosing, so the elder witch arranged an engagement for her. Rubeus, a (very) distant cousin on Grams' side of the family, was currently attending mage school on the family's ancestral homeworld, Splendora. Legal marriageable age there was 17, so the big wedding was set for just a week after her birthday next spring. Considering he was a jerk and guaranteed to stray, she wasn't looking forward to it at all.

"Rochelle, we were just talking." He frowned at the fairy. "Besides, Mother was never a fan of you. I doubt she'd let Father sign that contract anytime soon."

Somehow, Sapphire wasn't surprised to hear that Rochelle fell short of Topaz's mother's expectations. She did dress like a hooker. Though, it wasn't like she could do any better to please royalty. She was a witch from a backwater, magic-less realm with a less than attractive pedigree. Mingling with Royals, outside a possible friendship, stood too far away for her to touch.

"It better not be more than that, or I'll tell the court you've been flirting with some lower-class witch." Rochelle huffed, casting a haughty gaze toward the pair. "Or maybe she's spelled you already?"

"Now wait just a minute!" Sapphire growled, finally deciding to jump into the conversation. Before, it had been informational and educational to listen, but no way was someone going to accuse her of spelling a specialist! "Just what the _hell_ would I stand to gain by spelling him? Even I know a Royal Inquisition would see right through a freshman-level devotion spell, and I'm from a non-magical realm! Have you been into the henbane, Princess Rochelle?" The other girl _had_ to be a princess; she knew that much from the way she went on about contracts and trade relations.

The Geosian at least had the decency to look offended. "Oh, so you're a logical person. That makes this discussion slightly less of a waste of my time. He's mine, not yours."

"He wasn't mine to begin with." Sapphire snorted. "He's his own person, and **only** yours if or when that fancy contract of yours gets signed. We were just talking. Now go bother someone else with your wild, erroneous accusations!"

As the older fairy was about to respond, a thunderous rumble shook the entire courtyard, followed by a beastly roar. Topaz's eyes widened.

"The dragons!" He exclaimed. "Somebody's loosed the dragons!"

"I'll bet she has something to do with it!" Rochelle accused as two more fairies showed up behind her. They looked like photographic negatives of each other; one having platinum-colored hair and dark blue eyes, and the other dark blue hair and silver eyes. The silver-haired girl wore a red dress, while her companion wore the same dress in silver.

"A group of witches just blasted the cage doors open!" Blue hair responded. "I bet they used that one as a distraction!" She pointed directly at Sapphire.

"What?" The Earth-raised witch blinked. "Why would I agree to help them ruin the first dance our prestigious school has been invited to in the last decade?" Were _all_ of the fairies getting into the henbane tonight? "If anybody's ruining it, it's those three _Seniors_, the Destructa Coven!"

"All specialists report to the dragon cages!" Cordatorta's booming voice carried over the panic. "Find your dragon and calm it down!"

"That's my cue." Topaz responded, glancing at the four girls. "Rochelle, why don't you go defend the younger fairies? The ones huddling against the south wall?" Sure enough, a gaggle of young, scared freshmen crammed in next to each other by the south wall.

The brown-eyed princess rolled her eyes, as if the thought of doing such a thing was far beneath her dignity. "Fine. Jinx, Chance, come on." She called to the two similar fairies who had accused Sapphire earlier and strutted toward the crowd. Sapphire rather suspected that the only reason she agreed to do it was because Headmistress Faragonda was watching her students like a hawk. One did not want to get caught doing anything to endanger other students in a crisis. That never sat well with any of the three headmasters in Magix.

Sapphire turned to wish Topaz well, but found he was long gone. Off to tame his dragon, most likely. Hearing Dusk shouting her name, she sighed and ran over to where her friends were standing, ready for battle.

* * *

Now, unknown to Haley and Sonia, Chloe slipped away after the dragons were unchained. Not that she didn't want to watch the carnage. She loved carnage as much as the next witch; she simply had another job to do.

Light Haven Magical Correctional facility prided itself on being hard to escape, due to the strong barrier spells around the outer edge of the facility. But, one didn't have to break the barrier to get out. It was attack proof, not teleport-proof. And with the inhibitor strips she'd given her colleagues on the inside, it shouldn't take long at all.

Closing her eyes and tilting her head back, Chloe focused on the chaos energy that fueled her magic, letting it bathe her body in an eerie green light. As soon as she'd deemed there was enough of it, she channeled the energy into the three women she sought on the inside. For anyone else, the trick would have been difficult. But she had been trained by members of the Whisperian Coven since her birth, and had grown up practicing incantations with the other girls. They were connected by something as stronger than a blood bond. Funneling her magic into the other three hardly put a strain on her. It was like a beacon, guiding the other women to where she stood.

The beacon worked. In a swirl of dark, cold, and clouded energy, three women appeared before her, standing in a circle with their hands clasped. The Trix Coven was free once more.

"I think I'm gonna be sick." Darcy moaned once the swirling energy faded, quickly releasing her hand hold on Icy and Stormy. The white poofy jumpsuit—the same one worn by all prisoners at Light Haven—accentuated her swollen stomach rather than hiding it.

"How did that make you feel sick?" Stormy folded her arms as her sister witch hurried past them, bent over, and emptied her stomach contents onto the lawn. "It was a simple teleportation spell!"

"Now, now, Stormy, you know our dear sister isn't at the top of her game right now." Icy replied, then looked at Chloe. "Let this be an example for you, dear cousin. Wait until _after_ you've completed your quest for domination to perpetuate the coven bloodline."

"Noted." The younger witch nodded. "Now, come with me, and I'll show you the girl I told you about."

"Amethyst's daughter." Stormy shook her head. "I can't believe that urban myth turned out to be true."

"And you're positive she has Dark _Dragon_ Fire, and not just generic dark fire?" Darcy inquired, slowly making her way back to her fellow witches. "You only saw her conjure proper attacks once."

"She called it 'Black Dragon's Rage'." Chloe pointed out. "I think that pretty well sums it up."

"Very well." Icy nodded. "Let's go observe this freshman in action. Surely the dragons have made it to the courtyard by now. We'll need them to distract from us teleporting in to watch."

* * *

True to Icy's statement, the dragons had indeed made their way to the courtyard. Although not all of them were raging out of control. The loose Senior and Junior class dragons were now (mostly) under the rein of their handlers. Five in particular seemed to move as a thoroughly cohesive unit.

What kind of dragon a specialist received depended as much on what kinds were available that year as on his confidence and ability to work with the beast. The group of five now attempting to herd the rest back to their stables looked nothing like the ones Sky and his unit trained for the exhibition. A boy with a light brown mullet rode a four-legged green dragon in the same fashion one would ride a horse. A more geeky-looking teen with curly brown hair guided a larger silvery-purple dragon with an impressive Mohawk-like fin ridge across its head and down its neck. Two more specialists, a blond and yet another brunet, rode a pair of nearly identical bipedal dragons. One was dark brown, and the other was maroon in color. The final dragon, a regal looking creature with snow white scales and a refined wedge-shaped head, glided easily under the command of a young man with orangey-blond hair.

It took Sapphire a full minute to register that the boy on the white dragon was the same one she'd chatted with earlier.

"Those of you with fire powers, transform but do not engage them!" She heard him shouting at the gathered fairies and witches. "They like things that burn as hot as they do!"

Several dance-goers just stared in fear. They didn't want to fly up at a dragon! But a few did not, and soon Bloom, Sapphire, and a couple of other girls took to the air. They weren't the only ones helping, though. Musa was trying to use her musical powers to soothe the beasts, however not all were responding as she'd hoped. Sky's dragon was now under his control, but not everyone was so lucky. Timmy's threw him off in a matter of seconds.

"Girls!" Saladin called to the ones already in flight. "You need to project an aura of fire around yourselves! It will draw the dragons to you, and they should follow you to their stables."

The two daughters of Oritel locked eyes for a moment, a silent understanding hidden in their gazes. For the first time, Bloom realized that she and the young witch might have inherited more from their father than simply the color of their eyes.

She knew for certain when they powered up. She felt the flame magic from a few other students-all dealing in fire, but certainly not Dragon's Flame. The magic she felt radiating from the girl with the wavy blue hair, however, had an all too familiar edge to it. Dragon's Flame, but not the same as what she controlled. It was…colder, yet still burned hot. Her limited magical terminology couldn't find a word to explain it.

She'd ask Tecna about it later, after they finished dragon herding.

Every dragon in the area stopped whatever it was doing to look at the two half-sisters. The girls didn't realize it yet, coming from a world where the dragons were all but extinct, but the Dragon's Flame sounded an irresistible call to any dragon close enough to hear it. Tonight it played a sweet symphony for all the great beasts to hearken unto.

"Come on, let's get you all back to your rooms." Bloom spoke to the attentive creatures as if she were speaking to a small, stubborn child. "You can have all kinds of fun tomorrow." Not a one of the dragons moved; they just stared at her in silence.

"I don't think just _telling_ them to move is going to cut it." Sapphire folded her arms across her chest.

"Then come with me and we'll lead them." Bloom responded, flying over the top of the beasts (who were mercifully standing on the ground) and coming down in a graceful arc behind them. Sapphire followed close behind her, with a few brave fire fairies and witches following in her wake. The dragons watched their every move, and turned around to see the two girls better. However, Bloom only paused long enough to make sure her sister was behind her and the dragons were watching. Once sure of both facts, she flew forward, toward the dragon stables. Though protesting the idea of going back into their stalls, the dragons without riders allowed themselves to be contained once more. The ones with riders atop their backs didn't even fight, letting their human partners lead them into their rooms for the night. They knew they would be allowed to fly again soon enough.

From a safe distance, the four Whisperian witches watched the scene unfold in silence. "Looks like Chloe had it right after all." Stormy admitted once the dragons were safely caged. "The brat does have dark Dragon's flame."

"I'm not sure she realizes exactly what it is yet." Darcy pointed out. "Probably thought after all these years it was just dark fire."

"She'll know after tonight." Chloe flipped a rebellious lock of green hair back over her shoulder. "I guarantee you she'll be researching sources that affect dragons once she gets back to the castle."

"If her dear sister doesn't tell her." Icy waved the thought off. "Not that it's any of our concern. We'll judge for ourselves just what kind of output she's really got. Chloe, are your girls going to the amusement park, like we planned?"

"Should be there already." The younger girl replied. "Just as we should be meeting them there soon."

"Good." Icy nodded. "We'll draw her and her pathetic sister out the old fashioned way."

"And if their friends intervene?" Darcy asked worriedly, rubbing her stomach. She wasn't much good in a fight right now, and wouldn't be again until after the baby was born. She still had about five more months of uselessness to go.

"You sit this one out, Darcy." Stormy responded. "Between the five of us, I know we can take care of them!"

"You better be right." The brunette snarled. "I don't wanna get stuck having this kid in Light Haven! We won't get to keep it if that happens!"

"It won't. You're just being paranoid." Stormy answered. "Now come on! I want to wreck the teacup ride, and if we wait any longer Haley will beat me to it!"


	8. TopsyTurvy Trouble

**Sapphire Flames**

**8. Topsy-Turvy Trouble**

The abrupt end to the dance did little to alter the Hex Coven's plans for the evening. They had decided before the dance ever began that they would go to a local high-end café called Monterrey's, known for good hamburgers and a breathtaking view of the amusement park across the street. An early end to the night simply meant that they could get to the café earlier than anticipated and eat some actual food.

What they hadn't planned on was having quite so many people tag along. Lucy and Mari had long since departed for Cloud Tower, but many other fairies and witches had stayed to discuss their plans. It so happened that, during a conversation between the two native Linpheans, Flora and Thorn learned that their two groups were going to the same restaurant. Invitations were somehow exchanged and the two separate groups were now travelling as one large group to their destination.

"That girl is entirely too perky." Sapphire frowned, casting a wary glance at Stella of Solaria. Whoops, her mistake, _princess_ Stella of Solaria. The blond made darn sure that everyone knew her by title as well as name.

"She's a fairy princess; it's part of their general personality type." Dusk shrugged. The blonde fairy wasn't going to be on her list of favorite people any time soon, but she was princess of her home realm and as such, Dusk had to be nice to her.

"Why do we have to sit with them like we're all best friends?" Sapphire whispered. The only fairy she got off marginally well with was Mirta, and she wasn't with the group tonight. Instead, the recently-awakened Princess Layla-Aisha of Andros accompanied the Winx. She honestly wasn't sure what to think about the mocha-skinned fairy or the magenta-haired Fairy of Technology yet, but Stella got on her nerves. Musa and Flora…meh. They were okay for conversation, but she couldn't see them becoming good friends. She hadn't spoken more than a handful of sentences to Bloom. Just because the two came from the same planet and apparently shared the same father didn't mean they would be instant friends.

"Because apparently Thorn and Flora are more devious than any of us gave them credit for." Dusk whispered back. "Now quit whining. We at least know one or two of them are okay to talk to, so let's start there."

Meanwhile, Bloom and Flora were engaged in a hushed conversation of their own. "Flora, I just don't know how to start a conversation with her." The redhead admitted quietly. "I'm not even sure I would want to. She's the other woman's daughter!"

"And how is that her fault?" the tanned Nature fairy inquired. "She can't help who her mother was, and you shouldn't punish her for something so far out of her control."

"So, what? You expect us to just sit down and act as if there isn't a freaking elephant in the room?" Bloom responded. "How am I supposed to talk to her?"

"Both you and Musa talked to her perfectly well when we were at that resale shop last week." Flora reminded her friend.

"That was before I knew who she was!" The Dragon Fire fairy hissed. "Things are different now!"

"Only if you let them be that way." The brunette reminded her. "I'm not asking you two to become best friends, but you shouldn't completely shut her out either. She was polite enough not to call us names last time we met, and her coven helped us with those mean senior witches."

A resigned sigh sounded from the cyan-eyed teen's lips. "I guess you're right, Flora."

"Just be polite and friendly. That's all I'm asking." Secretly, the Nature fairy wanted her friend and her friend's newly-discovered sibling to at least become casual acquaintances. 'Friends' was too much to ask for, but acquaintances was within reach if they could both be friendly. She hated it when siblings fought—and after seeing tonight's display with the dragons, she suspected a serious spat between Bloom and Sapphire would turn into the biggest magical firestorm known to Magix.

Dinner proceeded in an awkward sort of fashion. Stella and Luna managed a rather bizarre alternation between arguing about the latest fashion trends (in no way shape or form could the blond witch be convinced that pink was the new black) and trading gossip about the latest Solarian news. Layla-Aisha looked totally out of her element, though from what little Sapphire knew about Andros and its royal customs, she wasn't exactly surprised. Andros was magically neutral due to the many types of magical creatures that lived there, but the nobility was classified as rigidly formal. Also not surprising the indigo-haired teen, Flora and Thorn tried their best to drag the reluctant princess into their conversation. Tecna and Dusk's stilted yet amiable chatter, however, did warrant a reaction of slight puzzlement from Sapphire. Musa would interject in whatever conversation she had something to add, but for the most part just sat and listened.

This of course left Sapphire and Bloom to sit awkwardly and try not to say anything offensive to the other. So far, only some rather boring details had been exchanged. Bloom grew up in Gardenia, California in the United States, and would have pursued a career as an artist or architect had she not discovered her powers. Her sister never did say exactly where she was from, but admitted that it was thickly wooded and heavily rural with no way of escape except getting married off to someone from her family's ancestral home realm.

"They've already arranged it for you, haven't they?" The redhead asked as soon as that fact was brought up. The younger girl looked down at her food, quietly and reluctantly acknowledging the truth. "Can't you get out of it?"

"Doubtful. Grams and cousin Alistair have already written out the contracts." Not to say that she didn't hate the idea of it all, mind you. Her intended fiancé was a jerk. "Short of marrying someone else before the deadline, I don't have any options." And some option that was…

"What's to stop you from doing just that?"

"Bloom, if I so much as go out for coffee with a member of the opposite sex, it would be grounds for them to push the date up. The family has spies here, so I can't hide it from them. Once he graduates in the spring, it may be the end of my education in magic." She wasn't kidding about that either. Her education as a proper witch wasn't nearly as important to the family as keeping her 'contained'. She was less a person to them and more a dangerous secret to be kept at all costs. It was something she knew her half-sibling couldn't understand, having come from a loving family.

The redheaded Fairy of the Dragon's Flame sat in silence. She'd never considered that getting out of an arranged marriage could be that difficult. Sky managed to do it for her…though, now that she thought about it, her being the supposed last heir of Domino probably had more to do with the dissolution of his contract with Diaspro than anything else. According to history books, Domino had been a much more powerful kingdom than Isis. Were Erendor and Samara simply allowing their son to pursue her because of what planet she came from? "What if…what if you traded up?" Bloom asked, gaining the attention of her blue-haired sister. "If someone from a 'better' family expressed interest in you, do you think they would void the old contract?"

"They might, but it would have to be a damn powerful family for them to do it." The younger girl frowned. Nothing short of either royalty or members of a powerful coven was likely to make a difference. Grams held rediculously high standards. "Besides, who would want to go out with someone they know is betrothed to someone else?" The wrong kind of someone, most likely…

Bloom frowned, unable to come up with any sort of helpful response. She'd dated Sky, but he was going by Brandon at the time and didn't tell her he was engaged to Diaspro…and once she found out about it (and cooled down considerably), she'd told Sky that he would have to choose between them. And grovel; she didn't let him back into her life without a lot of groveling on his part. Even now, their relationship was strained. Sure, she liked him, but she wasn't positive that this wasn't just another high school crush. Until she got her own love-life sorted out, she was in no position to comment on anyone else's.

It was during this pause in their stilted conversation that a bright flash of light drew the girls' attention to the window looking out on the amusement park across the street.

"What was that?" Dusk asked, looking outside as a lightning bolt streaked across the sky. "The weather report said nothing about storms tonight…"

"That's not natural." Flora shook her head, both she and Thorn feeling the plants outside trying to tell them something. "I'm almost positive it's magic."

"But none of the Destructa coven has any electrical powers." Dusk shook her head, going over the three meanest witches on campus in her mind. Sound waves, chaos, and comets, yes, but no electrical powers.

"I thought the Trix were locked up in Light Haven?" Musa grumbled as Sapphire and Layla looked on in confusion.

"The who?" Layla inquired. Having not been in or around Magix last semester, she was unfamiliar with the common name of the coven who attempted to steal the Dragon's Flame.

"The witches who caused all the trouble last year." Luna answered. "If they're out, they had to have had help from the outside."

"I say we go round them up and help the police lock them back up!" Bloom growled, itching for a rematch with Icy.

"I don't know; they might be counting on you charging in there so they can steal your powers again." Sapphire pointed out bluntly. "It's what I would do."

"Well, between six fairies and two transforming witches, I think we can take them." Stella said, rising to her feet and leaving flagging down a server. "Let's pay and leave, ladies. We have some uber baddies to round up!"

* * *

Stormy was having the time of her life on the teacup rides. Watching the cups short out and spin uncontrollably with patrons still inside made her feel giddy. Floating next to her, Haley launched projectile energy spells at the spinning seats in an attempt to shatter them to pieces. At this point, neither witch cared if the pesky heroines known as the Winx Club showed up or not. They were perfectly content with causing mass property damage and personal injury. Unfortunately for them, their new hobby wouldn't last long.

It had been difficult for the Winx and Hex girls to get inside the park, as they had to move against the flood of people leaving the park like salmon swimming upstream. Eventually they did enter and made their way up to Stormy and Haley…even if not everybody knew the names.

"Who's the chick with the god-awful old lady hair?" Stella wrinkled her nose up at the comet witch's hairstyle and color. The ten young women were hiding from the older women's view under a nearby awning.

"Haley of Cosmosia, Senior, Witch of Comets and Celestial projectiles." Dusk responded.

"And the girl needing a whole jar of frizz-ease product must be Stormy." Sapphire deduced. "I'm thinking defense over offense for whoever fights this round."

"That's Stella's and Tecna's specialties." Flora offered.

"Dusk and Saph are the only ones of our crew that can transform, and Dusk has the better shields." Thorn thought out loud.

"And we'll probably need Luna when we find Darcy." Tecna answered coolly. "Moonlight cancels darkness, if it's strong enough."

"Let's split into three groups." Bloom said, taking charge of the situation. "Stella, Tecna, and Dusk will stay here and deal with Stormy and Haley. Flora, take Luna and Musa and try to find Darcy."

"I'll go too." Thorn offered, looking to Flora as she spoke. "If nothing else, I can boost her power output."

"Okay." Bloom nodded. "That leaves Layla, Sapphire, and I to find Icy and take her down."

"Can your morphix even _do_ anything against someone with ice-based powers?" Sapphire asked the mocha-skinned Fairy of Waves.

"My power is more than just morphix." The Androsian princess answered calmly. "I can deal with some snow and ice crystals."

"Very well." The indigo-haired witch nodded. If the other girl thought she could handle it, more power to her. She wasn't going to count on a pair of fairies to save her ass, especially not when one of them seemed to want a grudge match.

"Less talk, more action!" Bloom said. "Stella, give us some cover!"

"You got it!" With a cheerful smile, the blonde fairy sent a blast of sunlight at the duo of trouble-making witches, allowing everyone to transform and run without being seen.

"Aaaagghh!" Stormy cried out as she attempted to shield her eyes. That light was bright, dammit!

"What is it with you ladies and causing tens of thousands of dollars worth of property damage an hour?" Stella exclaimed in an exasperated tone.

"We happen to enjoy it! Asteroid Field!" Haley cackled, magically summoning several floating rocks and hurtling them at the three younger women.

"Firewall!"

"Shade Shield!" Dusk and Tecna cried out at the same time. The two shields held against the stony projectiles, though Dusk's flickered slightly.

"Psycho-clone!" Stormy launched her trademark whirlwind attack, fully intending to take advantage of Dusk's inexperience in forming shields.

"Rising Sun!" Stella wasn't about to let the youngest Trix have the upper hand in the battle and proved it by launching a ball of concentrated sunlight at the Witch of Wind and Lightning while she was busy directing her attack. The tactic worked, knocking the frizzy-haired witch backward and down into a swing ride aptly named "the Cyclone".

"I don't like the looks of this." Haley frowned as a group of magical police entered the front gates. "We'll finish this another time, wimps!" She called, teleporting away.

"Coward!" Stella cried out as Dusk managed to incapacitate a woozy Stormy with tendrils of shadow energy.

"Tell me something I didn't know!" The Shadow Witch called out to the Fairy of the Sun and Moon.

* * *

"They're this way; I can hear them." Musa whispered as her group closed in on one of the escaped Trix Witches.

"They?" Flora inquired. "Who's with her?"

"Some kind of Sound Witch; She's trying to disguise their breathing and listen in on us." The Fairy of Music replied.

"That would be Sonia—the one with the hideous purple mohawk." Luna piped up, not quite managing a whisper. Her voice seemed to carry over distances better than she knew how to stop it.

"Say that to my face, Pixie!" An angry female voice shouted.

"Great going, you twit! Now we'll never get away from them!" The equally irritated sound of Darcy's voice shot back. "I knew I should have left you idiots to your own stupid plots!"

"Stay where you are!" Musa shouted, flying over to where the two women were unsuccessfully hiding in front of a souvenir shop. Sonia was already on her feet and fully transformed, but Darcy—seated on a wooden bench-seemed notably less interested in a confrontation. The Dark Witch had traded the white prison jumpsuit for a purple peasant blouse and a loose skirt, both barely concealing her baby bump.

"I don't take orders from bossy pixies like you!" Sonia launched herself in the air.

"Your funeral, dumbass!" Darcy shouted at the younger witch, not bothering to stand and unable to transform. If she had the energy, she would simply teleport away, but the convergence teleports with her sister witches earlier in the evening left her feeling drained. A high-powered spell like that could put both her and her child in jeopardy and she wasn't willing to take that kind of risk. A look of resigned discomfort crossed her face as Flora's vines wrapped around her ankles, binding her to the spot.

"I hope she has better clothes picked out than that for it!" Luna blurted out as Musa and Sonia began to trade energy attacks. "And a hair growth spell!" Seriously, who told that walking train wreck that Mohawks would be an in-trend this season?

"That's it!" The Sonic Witch roared, dodging Musa's attack and launching herself at the Lunar Witch. "You're going DOWN, Pixie!"

"For the last time I am NOT a blasted FAIRY!" The blond witch growled. She was fed up with people assuming that she had wings just because she was more fashion-forward than her classmates! A soft glow surrounded her body, but she didn't really care. All she cared about was blasting the upperclassman now launching an attack at her.

"Sub-Woof Blast!"

"Crescent Cage!" A shimmering forcefield appeared around Luna as the bright aura around her faded. The energy blast from Sonia bounced violently off it as the smaller girl charged up for an offensive attack and levitated off the ground. "You're going to get what you deserve." She spat, silvery-white energy collecting in her palms. "Gibbous Attack!"

The purple-haired witch was caught completely off her guard by the beam of moonlight rocketing toward her. She was so shocked that she forgot to duck out of the way and was shot backward into Musa.

"Get the _hell_ off me!" The Melodian fairy exclaimed, shoving the dazed witch away.

"Halt!" A police captain said as he and his squad approached.

"Oh Dragon, no!" Sonia shook her head to clear it as the cops advanced and Musa, Luna, and Flora surrounded her. "I'm not going to jail for this crap!" She muttered a quick incantation and vanished in a puff of smoke.

"Not so tough on her own, is she?" Luna began brushing imaginary dirt off her shoulders but stopped mid-gesture, noticing for the first time that now was wearing a completely different outfit than the one she wore to the dance. A dark green, long-sleeved, scoop-neck dress hugged her torso and hips before dropping in a straight skirt down to her ankles. The edges of the sleeves and the hem of the skirt appeared torn, and a spiked dog collar adorned her neck. Dark green clunky platform covered her feet, and two green bands held her light blond hair back in pigtails. "What the…"

"Congratulations, Luna, you are now officially a witch." Thorn smirked. "And I'm sure Zarathustra will want a six-page report on those attacks you just used."

"Way to ruin my big moment." The smaller girl petulantly folded her arms across her chest.

* * *

"They're here somewhere." Sapphire stated, glancing around the small, covered area the three women comprising their group stood in. It was the entry line for one of the biggest roller coasters in the park (which was currently covered in ice), and should have had a line of patrons waiting to get on. Now, however, it was empty. "The temperature just dropped about five degrees." She didn't like this setting at all. If Icy had just one other witch with her, the two of them could block both exits and trap the lot of them inside the area. Fairies didn't last long on ice, and she wasn't sure just how well the dark fire she drew her power from would keep her from freezing to death.

Layla-Aisha nodded as Bloom began to unconsciously radiate heat. She felt the change in ambient temperature as well. "This Icy woman can't be far away."

"Why would I be when my prey comes right to me?" Bloom felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up and an extra shot of adrenaline surge through her body at the sound of Icy's voice. The tall platinum-haired witch appeared on the tracks of the abandoned coaster. "Poor little Bloom is just so predictable."

"It's to be expected of a fairy, I believe." Sapphire whipped her head around as Chloe stepped up to block the other exit. Dammit, she _knew_ this smelled like a trap! "Though a witch should know better…even one from a backwater realm like Earth."

"It's a necessary evil, I'm afraid." The blue-haired witch kept her chin high. Backwater…did this dimwit not bother to do her own homework? Even if she lived on Earth, the Cole family name brought high respect anywhere Splendora traded. "At this very moment, your associates are either being apprehended or teleporting away like the cowards they are. You can do what you want to us, but in all likelihood you will be surrounded and forced to surrender before you can finish what you start."

"Ooh, she has a backbone and a good poker face." Icy purred. "You were right, Chloe, she's better than her idiot sister."

"Sister?" Layla asked, now thoroughly lost.

"I fail to see how comparing the two of us is going to make a difference." Sapphire remarked as the ambient temperature continued to drop. Icy had an endgame here, but what could it be? It took three witches to properly operate the Whisperian Crystals used to steal the Dragon's Flame last time. Unless they simply wanted to capture Bloom and take her elsewhere to steal her powers…again.

Then why the interest in her all of a sudden?

"On the contrary, little witchling." Chloe replied as Icy sealed off her end of the awning with a wall of ice. "Unlike the dimwit princess who didn't even know her own power source, you've _always_ known. Haven't you?"

"I'm sure your bat of a grandmother tried to keep it a secret." Icy put in. "Someone of her standing in the Coven couldn't afford to be connected with that scandal. Yet, she couldn't hide it for long, could she?"

"It's ironic, really." The green-haired senior smiled deviously. "Miriam was the priestess of the Temple of the Dragon, but the _real_ power of the flame didn't follow her bloodline at all."

Layla stared at the two women standing with her, studying the both of them. They had different hair, different skin tone, different noses…but the same cyan eyes.

"You have your grandfather's eyes." The Ice Witch taunted. "King Egan, Second-to-last monarch to rule the now dead realm of Domino. Long dead by the time you two came around, and yet the both of you have his eyes."

…and **that** would be the endgame. Fuck…Grams would be _**really**_ pissed if she found out that her granddaughter walked into a trap that lead to her powers being stolen. From the look on Bloom's face, the redhead realized what was going on as well.

"It won't work." Bloom said, trying to keep her voice even. She was just on the verge of having to squeak to talk. "The flames are too different; they will never converge the way you're planning to do it." Heck, she didn't know if they could converge _period_.

"It's a risk we're willing to take." A sinister grin spread across Chloe's lips. "How about we get our prisoners in a to-go ice coffin?"

"How about not?" Layla focused her power on the ice wall behind Icy. The Guardian Fairy of Andros could melt ice by making the water molecules inside the ice spread further apart. Since the Guardian Fairy's powers were similar to Layla's and the situation was dire, the Morphix Fairy was willing to give it a try. Ice was just really stiff morphix, right? It couldn't be that hard to mold…

With a violent cracking noise the ice wall exploded, sending thousands of tiny frozen daggers flying in all directions. Only some quick thinking from Bloom and Sapphire and the wall of heat resulting from that thinking kept them from being impaled by shrapnel.

So, she really couldn't melt ice…that would have been nice to know **before** she almost turned herself into an icicle dartboard!

"Are you two _trying_ to get us killed?" Sapphire growled at the pair fairies. "First you walk into a trap that practically had a neon sign over it and now you're trying rip us apart with ice needles!"

"Uhg." Chloe moaned, the instinctive energy shield she threw up dissipating. "Icy? Icy, are you okay?"

"No, I am NOT fucking okay!" The silver-haired witch griped. Several ice shards had pinned her to the wall, a few of them doing so through the skin of her arms and by punching holes in her cape. "I can't move"

"WE'RE COMING, GIRLS!" Stella yelled from somewhere outside, the ice explosion having drawn the attention of the other students.

"Get out of here!" Icy shouted to her companion.

"No! I'm not going to…" Chloe looked determined to stay, but her relative cut her off.

"You get caught and our whole plan goes straight to Shadowhaunt, now scram!" Reluctantly, Chloe glared at the two fairies and one witch not currently pressed against the wall.

"This is far from over." She glowered before fading out of sight.

* * *

"Well, that was easy." Musa remarked as the Trix were taken through a portal to Light Haven. "It went much better than I thought it would, actually."

"Speak for yourself!" Sapphire grumbled.

"I'm sure they just wanted to help." Flora tried to talk down the irate freshman witch.

"If that was helping, I'm better off on my own!" the Dark Fire witch spat.

"How was that our fault? You were there too!" Bloom demanded.

"How? You lead us into a trap and then tried to turn us into pincushions, and you want to know how it was your fault?!"

"We were not impaled." Layla folded her arms across her chest.

"No thanks to you!" Saph glared. "If our reaction time had been half a second slower, none of us would be talking right now! The only reason Icy's not dead is because it was her element to begin with!"

"I didn't know it would break like that!" Layla's expression hardened. "I was trying to melt it, and it got out of control!"

"Maybe you should go back to freshman chemistry, then!" Saph glared.

"Enough!" Thorn shouted, causing the three quarreling teens to quiet down. "There is no f-ing way I am going to be stuck listening to you three bicker all night! Saph, come on, we're going back to the dorms!"

"But I'm not…"

"I think you misinterpreted just how little I care if you're done or not!" The ebony-haired girl glared at her suitemate, cutting off the smaller girl's protest. "We are going back to the school if I have to drag you by the earlobe!"

"Come on, girls, we should head back too." Stella said, for once taking the hint and stepping into a leadership position. A disapproving gaze leveled itself upon Layla and Bloom. "I **refuse** to be stuck in detention with Griselda just because you three can't get along for more than ten minutes at a time." Reluctantly, the quarreling girls were separated by their friends with at least two other girls preventing them from reigniting the disagreement.


	9. Little Talks

**Sapphire Flames**

**9. Little Talks**

Monday morning began in its usual and ungodly early manner for the residents of Cloud Tower. The mad rush to wake up, get dressed, and grab something edible from the dining hall was now quite routine to all the entering freshmen and Sapphire was no exception.

The unexpected break in the monotony of class on Monday came in the form of a rather unusual conversation with princess Starla of Splendora. With the realm being her ancestral home, Sapphire knew quite a lot about the royal family. It was a well-established monarchy that passed from the reigning monarch to their oldest child, and while Starla was the daughter of the king and queen, she was the second daughter and therefore would not take the throne unless some great tragedy befell her older sister Pippa. She also knew that royalty tended not to associate with exiled commoners, so when Starla first decided to strike up a conversation two weeks ago, the Earth-raised witch was flabbergasted.

_*Flashback*_

_It was the second day of classes, and the freshmen witches were just starting to get into the rhythm of their schedules. Finding their classes, however, sometimes proved difficult due to the fact that the living school building liked to twist hallways around for the sole purpose of confusing newcomers. Sapphire was the unfortunate target today, slinking into her Magical History classroom with Professor Mirage Moonstone just as the large clock in the center of the main lobby chimed for classes to begin. Professor Mirage—a woman in her mid-thirties with creamy blond hair and lavender almond-shaped eyes—gave the nearly-tardy freshman a disapproving frown and silently pointed to the only available seat. It so happened to be sandwiched in between a somewhat chubby gothic teen with pink hair and a black-haired girl in a yellow sundress. _

_It took a full thirty seconds for Sapphire to register where she recognized the ebony-haired, pale-skinned girl from. She was Starla, second child of the King and Queen of Splendora. Utterly confusing, as most royal planets wouldn't dare send even the second princess to Cloud Tower. Even with all of the wonderful academic accolades the academy earned, it was still considered a school for beings that a lot of royal families typically categorized as being 'inferior' at worst and 'troublesome' at best. Either King Mikhail was more forward-thinking than she ever gave him credit for being, or Princess Starla was going through a fit of rebellion. _

_Whatever the reason, it was unlikely that Starla even knew who she was, so Sapphire decided to pretend to pay attention in lecture. Granted, the first Great War in Eraklyon's history wasn't exactly riveting material, but she also didn't want to spend the whole class period staring at the green-eyed teen in the adjacent seat._

"_I wasn't aware magic-less realms knew who I was." Starla whispered in Sapphire's ear while Professor Mirage's back was turned, and the blue-haired witch felt her cheeks turn pink. She hadn't wanted Starla to know she was staring!_

"_Most people in magic-less realms cut all ties with the magical dimension years ago. The Cole family, however, has yet to completely do so with my grandmother and me." Her reply was swift and quiet. No need to alert the teacher…_

"_Oh, you're one of _those_ Coles." The princess's eyes lit up. "I thought you looked vaguely familiar. Your resemblance to your great-grandmother Delona is a bit striking." _

_Sapphire wasn't surprised by the comparison; other relatives had commented on how much she favored her grandpa's mother. "So I've heard." She muttered, plastering on a mask of attentiveness when Professor Mirage glanced toward the back of the classroom. "Grams says I'm my mother's daughter, though." Neither comparison rated as particularly flattering. Delona Cole, by all accounts she'd ever heard of the woman, had been a dark-haired low-level noblewoman who managed to be a royal pain in the ass. And her mother…she didn't even want to think about the connotations and of that whole mess. _

"_Better her than Delona; that woman was a _gorgon_, according to everyone that ever met her." Starla stopped talking long enough to look like an interested student as Professor Mirage glared at their row. "I think she's onto us."_

"_Then we'd best stop talking." The Earthling murmured. "We can continue our discussion tomorrow."_

"_I'll be looking forward to it." The Splendorian nodded before finally devoting her full focus to the history lecture. _

_*End Flashback*_

Since she was apparently the only person at Cloud Tower with 'Proper breeding' (according to Starla, anyway), she and the taller witch had struck up a rather unusual acquaintanceship (she couldn't bring herself to call Starla a friend just yet). They didn't hang out or anything; they both had their own groups of friends to run with, but every morning before Magical History class kicked off, they would discuss important topics, like current events on Splendora and why Earth's magic simply vanished so many years ago. The key word in that description was the word 'important', and apparently it had a much different meaning to Starla than Sapphire previously suspected.

"Prince Topaz of Endor, huh?" The black-haired wind witch grinned, green eyes sparkling with amusement. "Well done. He's quite the catch, and single now that he finally came to his senses and dumped Rochelle of Geos last semester."

Sapphire was not amused. The dance was ruined by rampaging dragons, and all Starla wanted to focus on was a polite conversation she'd had with one of the 'Heroes' at Red Fountain? "It is pointless to catch what you know you can never keep." The indigo-haired girl remarked, summoning her textbook and scratch paper. Sure, Topaz was a nice guy, but there was no way she'd be allowed to go out for coffee with him, let alone pursue a relationship.

"Oh, don't be so gloomy. That contract with the ruling family of Geos is _never_ going to be put into action." The fashionably-dressed teen waved, summoning her own supplies. "Topaz isn't the crown prince, so there is no rush to marry him off yet. He has two brothers in line ahead of him, the younger of which is married with a small daughter already. He's free for the taking."

"For someone else, perhaps." Cyan eyes looked down at her paper. This conversation was quickly becoming equal parts awkward and embarrassing. "I don't play games with people's emotions like that. _My_ fate has been decided and there is no way to escape it."

"Oh. Oh, Dragon, no." A look of complete horror crossed Starla's features. "_You're_ the cousin that Rubeus is engaged to?"

"Not by choice. I'm sure you are completely aware of how depraved some of his dating and partying habits can be." Her dear relative's behavior was _ever_ a popular topic of the Splendorian society publications. "Grams and one of her cousins arranged it, supposedly so I wouldn't get into any 'trouble' in my teenage years." Which was essentially code for "knocked up out of wedlock".

"And just when I thought witches had more class than that." Black hair swished around Starla's head like the hem of a skirt as she shook her head. "That's terrible! Please tell me they will at least wait until you graduate."

"I doubt they will even allow me to graduate. Grams is _ever_ convinced that I need to be locked in a cage like a songbird." Sapphire fought the urge to roll her eyes and didn't quite succeed. "The date is tentatively set after he graduates from mage school in the spring, but if they catch **me** philandering about, the will push up the date and move the ceremony to a planet with a lower official marriage age requirement." She exhaled a ragged breath as she wrote the day's date on the top of her scratch paper.

"Perhaps I could help?" The princess offered after a brief pause of consideration.

"And how do you plan to do that?" the blue-haired witch scoffed. What royal would _want_ to help an exile?

"There is a bill slated for review this quarter…it was mainly meant for nobility, but it would apply to everyone within our borders or with our blood in their veins." The green-eyed girl explained. "In cases of arranged engagements, if one partner is found to be in the act of cheating on the other, that second party may declare the original terms of the marriage contract void."

"He would simply move his seduction to more secret places." Sapphire sighed. She knew her relative all too well to think that the law would have any effect on his behavior. "He's a jerk, but he is a very cunning one."

"No, you misunderstand." Starla held up a hand to signal silence. "Once the law is passed, any evidence that definitively proves an act of infidelity occurred can be used as long as the infidelity occurred after the date on the marriage contract was drafted and signed. Already two lower-class barmaids have accused him of getting them pregnant out of wedlock; you would be free and clear of it if you can get them to testify before a municipal judge, which, believe me, should not be an issue."

That perked the Dark Flame witch up a bit. She hadn't heard about the paternity suits, but it was exceedingly likely that Rubeus's father, Jadeite, was hoping to pay off the women who had filed them in hopes of keeping the family's reputation intact. Not that it would work; Rubeus and Diamente had already caused some major damage to the Cole family's track record. "Even if the barmaids get paid off?" She asked cautiously.

"The suit is part of public record and Jadeite is no attorney. The results will be published in tabloids as soon as they are in." The second princess replied as Professor Mirage walked into the classroom. "Trust me, you've got a real case to get that contract dissolved once the law passes. I'll even let you use the royal family's attorney to help you void the damn thing once and for all. _Nobody_ deserves to be married to that scoundrel."

"And what will I do if it doesn't pass before spring?" Sapphire inquired.

"File for an annulment." Starla answered as Mirage began to write on the chalkboard. "Do your friends know?"

"No…"

"Then I suggest you tell them. They might be able to hide you on one of their homeworlds if things go south." She shrugged as Professor Mirage called her class to order, leaving Sapphire to ponder whether or not she should tell her friends the truth over lunch.

* * *

"So, have you made a date with that uber cute guy you were talking with at the dance?" Luna bounced in her plastic chair as the Hex coven sat down for lunch in the dining hall.

"No, Luna, I did not make a date with him. I do not plan to make a date with him at all." Sapphire sighed, pushing a lock of wavy indigo hair behind her ear so it wouldn't accidentally get in her food.

Luna put on her best pout. "But why? He seemed to be really into you!"

"She brings up a good point." Dusk shrugged.

"Look, guys, it's not that simple." Saph stared into her mashed potatoes. "I can't date."

"Sure, you couldn't on Earth, but you're in Magix now!" Luna's bubbly personality was fast getting on her suitemate's nerves.

"I don't think you understand." Cyan eyes glared up at the blonde witch. "I can't date anyone because I've been promised to someone else."

"Wait, _what_?" Thorn blinked. "Your family set you up with someone?"

"Another family member, actually." The Earthling muttered. "Distant cousin; total jerk, already cheating on me, but a contract is a contract and I'm not going to be caught breaching it."

"That sucks." Dusk grumbled. "You think somebody would have made marrying a relative illegal by now."

"Well, they haven't on Splendora, where the rest of the family lives." The Dark Fire witch remarked. "The date's set for when he graduates mage school in the spring."

"Did you tell your new guy friend that?" Thorn raised an ebony eyebrow as she nibbled on her salad.

"Didn't have time; not that important. I probably won't ever see him again, anyway." Sapphire answered. "But if he decides to be persistent, I'll tell him the truth."

"Smart move. Last thing we need is for your unwanted fiancé to get the wrong idea and start a fight with a Red Fountain student." Dusk remarked. "The paperwork alone would drown you."

"Hence why I'm not going to let this go any farther than it already has." Despite how much she wished things could be different, her predicament wasn't likely to change. She would have to keep from seeing Prince Topaz of Endor again in the near future. "So, don't expect me to follow any of you girls to Red Fountain any time soon."

"I don't think any of us will be clamoring to go there soon, anyway." Thorn shrugged. "Let's move to a less depressing subject, shall we? Now, since I've noticed that all four of us play musical instruments, I think it might be fun to start a garage band."

"You want to start an all-girl pop band?" Luna knit her eyebrows together.

"Not a pop band, a rock band." Thorn smirked. "Pop bands are a dime a dozen in Magix; bands geared for more 'alternative' individuals like us are less common. Very few are fronted by women and I don't know that I've ever seen a good one featuring an all-girl line-up."

"So, we're the Magix equivalent of the Runaways?" Sapphire asked, causing her suitemates to look at her strangely.

"The who?" Dusk asked.

"The Runaways, an all-girl rock-n-roll band popular on Earth during the 1970s." The indigo-haired teen explained. "I'll pull up some of their songs later."

"Well, if we're going to form a band, we'll need a catchy name." Luna put in. "Like Spinelli and the Supernovas; they're pretty popular on Solaria."

"We already have a catchy name." Thorn grinned. "We're the Hex Girls."

"True, but we'll need to start off doing covers until we get our own material." Dusk remarked.

"We can do covers of popular songs on Earth in addition to some current chart hits here in the Magical Dimension." Sapphire suggested. "It would make us stand out from our competition a little more."

"I think a good place to start would be that all-girl band you mentioned earlier." Thorn nodded. "Saph, Dusk, get together a set-list and lyrics sheets for the songs you think we should start with. We can start practicing tomorrow evening."

"You think we have a chance of making it out of the bar scene?" Luna asked warily. Lots of bands were formed in the college town of Magix, but not many escaped to gain recognition in other realms.

"Not a clue, but we'll do our best." The onyx-haired Linphean admitted as the end-of-lunch bell rang. "With a little luck, we might just take this whole planet by storm."


	10. Musical Healing

**Disclaimer: It should be blatantly obvious that I do not own Winx Club or the rights to any of the songs/bands mentioned in this chapter. They are used for my writing pleasure and I make no profit from posting this story. **

**Sapphire Flames**

**10. Musical Healing**

Nearly two weeks had passed since the school dance, and the quartet of witches known as the Hex coven had thrown themselves into the process of making a band. It was Thursday afternoon, the night before a musical open-house at a local club. It wasn't a big venue, and they would only be allowed three songs, but it was still a gig and would put their name out there for the musical underground of Magix to see. All four band members had ramped up their practices, deciding which cover songs they wanted to do and whether or not to include some of the original works Thorn had written.

They had, with permission of the headmistress, commandeered the music room for their practice that day. While going through their warm-ups, they heard the distinctive evil cackles of the three meanest witches in school.

"Note to self, throw up the sound-proofing wards as soon as we get here next time." Dusk grumbled, walking over to the wall where the door was. She traced her hand over one of the runes painted onto the stone, causing the walls to give off a brief humming noise as the noise-cancelling charms went to work.

"How did those three not get expelled?" Luna grumbled, twirling a drumstick in her left hand. "We all saw them in league with the Trix!"

"They all got away before the cops showed up and didn't leave fingerprints anywhere." Thorn paused her guitar runs to remind the youngest coven member. "Griffin gave them a month of detention just for being suspected of it, but since it's our word against theirs, we can't prove anything."

"Yeah, the Trix cleared out the place before the others showed up." Dusk frowned, settling back down at her stool in front of the keyboard.

"I think the Trix wanted to keep their association with the Destructa coven a secret from the way Icy and Chloe were talking." Sapphire mused as she tuned her bass guitar. "Which means we won't have to worry about them doing any big stuff until their detention sentence is finished."

"Good, I don't need to be worrying about that with such a big gig coming up." Thorn sighed.

"It's our only gig." Luna frowned.

"It's also our first gig, which makes it big." The Linphean shrugged. "Oh, I didn't know what to put down on the forms for the showcase, so I just listed our band name as the Hex Girls. Is that okay with you guys?"

"It'll do for now." Dusk remarked. "If we decide we don't like it in a couple of weeks, we can always change it."

"Fair enough." The red-clad witch remarked, stepping up to the microphone in front of her. The girls had set up a couple of microphones and some practice amps to get a better idea of how they actually sounded. "Were we gonna practice or just stand around talking all day?"

"You know, you're gonna ruin Linphea's reputation for having peaceful, mild-mannered people." Luna teased, twirling one of her drumsticks around like a baton.

"Less talking, more practicing." Thorn griped, double-checking that her guitar strap was attached correctly. "I want this to be perfect before the show tomorrow night."

"Fine, fine, we'll practice." Saph grumbled, looking at the set list in front of her. Their first song was a cover of an old Runaways song, but the other two were originals written by Thorn and Dusk. It would be a grueling first set to perform live, but the payoff if it worked would be fantastic. She hoped this would all work out. Even if they never got famous outside Magix, the music had been a nice distraction from the stresses of life in general.

* * *

Café Forte was a small coffee shop located in one of the many boroughs of Magix city, conveniently near one of the only tram stops to that area. Since there wasn't enough space for a proper stage inside, the bands participating in the talent showcase that Friday night were playing on a makeshift stage out in the parking lot. This wasn't a major setback for most of the bands playing, but a few decided that such a place was beneath them and left.

Sapphire could feel her heart pounding rapidly against her ribcage as their turn to perform drew closer. While Thorn would take the lead for most of their songs, the first song—a cover from a band known only to Earthlings and those who associated with them—was her lead since it was a song heavier on the guitar work and Thorn wanted to devote her full attention to her instrument.

Unable to sit still, the blue-haired witch double-checked that her own instrument was in tune. Hers wasn't much to look at, being a plain light-stained wood instead of anything brightly colored or patterned like some of the other musicians owned, but it was all she had been able to afford when she began searching for something to play. It had a decent sound to it and was in good condition, which was all that had ever really mattered to her. If they did manage to become locally famous, however, she might need to look into either glittery guitar polish or some outlandish stickers to put onto the body of the guitar or simply upgrade to a fancier model.

As she waited for their name to be called, her cyan eyes scanned the crowd in search of familiar faces. There were a few witches she recognized from her classes, most notably Lucy and Mari. Sitting conspicuously close to the green-haired sophomore's table were Mirta, Musa, and another fairy that Sapphire didn't recognize. They seemed to be there for the music and not to talk about the gigantic fight with her half-sister last week, however, so she decided to be nice if they decided to approach her and the girls after their set.

"And now for another new act!" The M.C. spoke as the previous band left the stage. "Coming to us straight from Cloud Tower, here are the Hex Girls!"

She felt Thorn squeeze her hand as they made their way onto the stage and plugged in their instruments. Unlike in their rehearsals, all four girls had microphones in front of them tonight. It did little to reassure her; after all, Dusk and Luna wouldn't be taking the lead in the first song.

Desperately hoping that choosing to play "Queens of Noise" wasn't a mistake, she waited for Thorn's lead in and took a deep breath. After playing a few notes, she started to sing.

"_With a pinch of rock and a dose of roll…_"

* * *

Musa watched the concert with interest. Café Forte might be small, but it was a great place to hear new acts before anyone else got the chance. It was a fact that she and Ortensia—another Music Fairy attending Alfea—were very well aware of. She had rather hoped to just have a quiet evening out with some of her non-Winx friends. The girls were great, they really were, but sometimes she just needed time with other people.

"They're really good, even though I don't know the song." Mirta remarked, tapping her fingers to the beat of the drums.

"I wonder if it's a song from Earth?" Ortensia mused. News of Earth-born witches at Cloud Tower had spread like wildfire through the other two schools in Magix.

"Probably is." Musa shrugged, making a mental note to look up more Earth music next time she had the chance. What the planet lacked in magic, it made up for with music and food and scenery, as far as Flora had been concerned. There were some truly beautiful places on that planet.

Speaking of Flora… "What are you doing here?" Musa narrowed her almond-shaped eyes at the Nature Fairy as she and a very familiar redhead entered the outdoor seating area.

"Enjoying the music." Flora responded softly, not looking the Music fairy in the eyes. Musa groaned.

"Flora, please tell me you're not doing what I think you're doing."

"What're they doing on stage?" Bloom frowned, eyes focused on the stage where her younger half-sibling was performing.

"Playing. They're a band and a damn good one." Musa remarked.

"Can you both just sit back and listen?" Mirta asked, a faint blush creeping up her pale freckled cheeks as she cast a pleading glance at Lucy, who was at the next table over. "The last thing we need is to make a scene."

"Yeah, just relax and enjoy the music. It's been really good tonight." Ortensia chimed in, causing the redheaded Dragon Fire fairy to pout.

"Fine, we can listen, but that still doesn't mean I want to talk to her!" The Fairy of the Dragon's Flame huffed, folding her arms across her chest as the first song wrapped up.

"Oh look, the one in the red dress is stepping up to the mic." Ortensia noticed. Musa perked up, wondering if the Linphean witch was as good at singing as she was at shredding. Luna counted to three by tapping her sticks to one of the cymbals before the rest of the girls all picked up the beat.

"_I'm gonna cast a spell on you. You're gonna do what I want you to_." The pigtailed fairy's eyes widened as Thorn began to sing. Linpheans weren't known for being musically gifted, but Dragon, that girl had some pipes.

She wasn't the only one that noticed. "When she said she'd be taking the lead, I didn't think she'd _actually_ sing." Flora commented softly, eyes focused on the plant witch.

The song had come to the chorus, and Musa was damn certain that the girls wrote this song themselves. Why else would Thorn refer to herself as a Hex girl? Still, the song was good. Not great, yet, but she doubted they'd had all that much time to practice it before the show. With a little more time and effort, it could be a hit single. The group would be a marketing director's dream. You didn't see very many female-fronted rock bands, let alone all-female rock bands. If the rest of their original material was as good as this song, they could potentially go a long way.

A quick look around showed that she wasn't the only person digging the Hex Girls. Most of the patrons who weren't hipsters were making their way toward the stage. She felt the itch to join them, like Ortensia stood up to do just now. But she sat in place, waiting to hear how this song ended before venturing into the crowd. Leaving Bloom here with only Flora to keep her out of trouble wouldn't be a wise decision anyway.

"They actually sound decent." With all the noise, even Musa's sensitive ears had a hard time detecting Bloom's shocked voice. She cautiously glanced toward her friend, dark eyes half-closed in suspicion.

"You sound like you _wanted_ them to be terrible." She commented, causing Bloom's pale cheeks to blush as bright as her hair. "I get that you two aren't going to be best friends, but wanting her to fail when she's done nothing but disagree with your decisions is a little harsh." Bloom could get a bit pig-headed sometimes and needed to be brought down a peg. Sapphire had done exactly that, and Bloom hadn't been pleased about it.

"I just…she makes me so angry." The redhead grumbled. "Who is she to tell me what to do? To question my plans? She hasn't lived through what we have."

"Was she really all that wrong to question it?" Musa countered. "Running off to fight Icy and an unknown second party wasn't a very bright move, Bloom, and you know it. We don't know much about Aisha other than she's our grade level. She doesn't have the same raw power you do, or the control. We knew even less about Saph's powers." It had all been a rather crummy plan, now that she thought about it.

"The dragons at Red Fountain followed her, just like they did me." Bloom suddenly found her manicure very interesting. "Icy said that the power of the Dragon's Flame came through Oritel's side and not Miriam's."

"So it's possible she has a variant of Dragon's Flame." If Musa learned one thing about power sources from her classes at Alfea, it was that there were variants to every power source. Fire had about ten known types and each type had its own variation; the Dragonfire was no exception, though variants of that source were very rare. The only known types were Dragon's Freezing Fire (which left freezer-burn in its wake), Dragon's Soul Fire (a very nasty power that attacked the soul and magic of an opponent rather than just their body), and Dragon's Hellfire (the Dragon's flame tainted by evil, ancient magic). The Hellfire variant was said to be the type employed by Valtor, a servant of the Ancestral Witches who was heavily involved in the fall of Domino—at least according to her recreational reading on the rise and fall of that kingdom. "That means she has absolutely no reason to want to attack you and take your power. If anything, she'd want to leave you alone so she doesn't attract unwanted attention."

"I guess so." The redhead didn't look too cheered up by that theory, but Musa let it slide. The song was winding down and she was anxious to hear if it would be as good as the last one.

She wasn't disappointed. This one started off with a sweet guitar solo before launching off into the chorus first thing. Thorn maintained her spot as lead vocalist, her haunting mezzo-soprano sweeping across the patio with the clarity of a clean glass window. "They're gonna go far, if they get the right producer." She commented more to herself than anyone sitting near them.

"You really think so?"

"I know so. There's a niche in the inter-realm market for a band like theirs, and they're more talented than some of the others I've heard attempting to fill it." She said. However, to catch the eye of any good producer, the band members would need to promote themselves at every venue they could manage. There were two clubs in Magix that hosted band competitions and several bars that held open mic nights. And that was just in Magix City proper; Solaria had a vibrant musical underground on its outer moons, and Melody held the illustrious title of being the music festival capital of the known realms. Shame her father decided to abandon his music career after her mother died, or she'd have a better idea of who the girls should seek out for a record deal.

"Have you ever thought of forming a band, Musa?" the Dragonfire fairy asked, cyan eyes shining with curiosity. It was nice to see her interested in something again; her artwork had been shoved aside in favor of saving the pixies as of late.

"Sometimes, but our group isn't necessarily rock band material." She admitted. "We could be a pop singing sensation, but not a band. And the singing thing is assuming that Stella or Tecna can actually sing." Aisha and Flora had decent voices, as did Bloom. They would make great backup singers. "If I did go into music, though, I think I'd rather be an MC or DJ. I could get Tecna to help put together some of the tracks—Zenith's put out a decent crop of Electronica/Dance DJs in the last few years, and they're sorta her guilty pleasure."

"I never realized Tecna liked any of the performing arts." Bloom remarked. The magenta-haired fairy in question didn't much care for public speaking or acting on a stage, preferring to work behind the scenes to further the show.

"Like I said, guilty pleasure." Musa shrugged, standing up. "You can sit here and mope all you want, but I'm going up to the stage with the other music fanatics."

Bloom sighed, watching the Music fairy's retreating form. She wasn't quite ready to let go of her anger yet—stubbornness, she supposed, was a fault she needed to work on—but couldn't justify any blind hatred of the younger girl. Not enough to wish her to fail, at any rate. It had been petty of her to do such a thing to someone she hardly knew…and perhaps they could still salvage the relationship to be working acquaintances. Sighing, the redhead stood and walked away from the patio. Flora would know where to find her when they needed to leave.

* * *

Thorn, still riding high on adrenaline following their performance, had launched herself into a heated music-related discussion with the brunette fairy-friend of Musa's (whose name Sapphire didn't hear). Dusk calmly chatted with Mari and Lucy, while Luna seized the opportunity to pick Mirta's brain about what fashion trends were more witch-appropriate.

But Sapphire didn't seek out the comfort of friends, or to find the half-sister that retreated around the corner. Her attention fell on a pale man in his mid-twenties sitting off to the right side of the stage. He'd cut his shaggy blue-green hair since she'd seen him last, but she'd recognize Alexandrite Cole anywhere. Did the family have nothing better to do with their time than spy on her? "I wasn't aware that Cole Exports intended to branch out into the music business." She remarked, sliding into the seat across from her relative.

"Cole Exports wasn't aware you intended to go into the music business, let alone that you were talented in that area." The man answered, leveling her with a searching stare. "Ruby never mentioned any hobbies."

"Ruby cares little for my interests and sees me only as a bargaining chip to get her back to Splendora, something both you and Andradite understand quite well." She answered coolly. "Granted, she's very poor at bargaining if she can't do better than a philandering distant cousin when any noble male on Whisperia or Eterna would enter a betrothal contract with the intent of honoring it along with gaining the prestige that comes with associating with our family."

"A valid point, but one no one can help you with." Her relative sighed in annoyance. Alex and his immediate family oversaw the Cole family's main _legal_ venture—an export company on Splendora. They had been suitably horrified, she recalled, when Grams and Coral announced the engagement. Inbreeding might have been acceptable at one time, but these days it was a strict no-no among anyone in a position of power. "I'm rather sure she and Bethany intentionally waited for Amos to die before arranging it; he never would have agreed to such a farce." He wondered why Jasper—Bethany's husband and Rubeus' father—hadn't protested the match. Perhaps the old man was so tired of his firstborn's unbecoming conduct that he felt any betrothal would do. "You know, I have access to some slow-acting poisons. Nearly untraceable."

"If I can't get out of this before spring, I'll take you up on it." She sighed. "Can you not tell her about this?"

"What is there to tell?" He shrugged. "You're pursuing a hobby—one that, if you decide to make it a chosen profession, would bring the _right_ sort of notoriety to our family once more." He paused, casting a sidelong glance at Thorn and the others. "Your sister witches talented to make this 'rock band' thing work."

A tingly feeling fluttered in her chest. Could he mean…? "Suppose we do hit the inter-realm charts and land a few hit singles. What would happen then if news of my... contract with Rubeus were made public knowledge?"

"I think the public would be in an uproar." A pleased smirk lighted on his face. "Most of them feel—accurately so—that no self-respecting witch of your talent and power level should be forced into such an unholy union."

Hundreds of plans swirled in her mind, waiting or her to accept or reject them on a merit basis. It would take time, and she wasn't sure she could accomplish it in six months' time, but she was willing to give it a shot. "Thank you. It's nice to know that someone else sees through this farce as clearly as I do."

"You are family, little Sapphire." He smirked, green eyes sparkling. "I may belong to the 'weaker' section of the family tree, but our devotion to protecting our own remains as strong today as it always is."

"I may have need of your family's devotion if my plan fails." She admitted. "I'm sorry to cut this short, but I need to be back before curfew, or Griffin will turn me into her latest lab-rat for potionology…"

"No need to apologize." He waved. "Just enjoy your time as a student here. I know it's probably the first taste of Freedom you've ever had."

"Likely the only one I'll get." She grumbled, standing up once more. "Take care, Alexandrite."

"You too, Sapphire." He nodded. She politely returned the gesture before walking back to her friends. Good news or no, Griffin would skin them all alive for returning past curfew.


End file.
